# Dawit Kebede

Dawit Kebede (Amharic: ዳዊት ከበደ; born 11 September 1980 in Adwa) is an Ethiopian journalist who spent 21 months as a political prisoner after criticising his country's government in the lead up to the 2005 general election. He was released on a presidential pardon nearly two years later and sought asylum in the United States in 2011. He returned to Ethiopia in 2014. Dawit was awarded the 2010 CPJ International Press Freedom Award for his dedication to journalism.

## Early career

Dawit was born in Adwa, Ethiopia but grew up in Addis Ababa, the oldest of three children. He received his BA in journalism from Unity University and a Master's from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He started his career as a columnist in Ethiopian newspapers on socio-political issues in 2001, followed by a stint at Habesha Journal, a bilingual health magazine. In 2004, after Habesha folded, he founded and became editor-in-chief of Hadar magazine. Hadar became popular due to its critical analysis of Ethiopian politics, including of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government.
During the 2005 Ethiopian general election, police opened gunfire in June 2005 against unarmed opposition supporters in Addis Ababa. On 8 June, Dawit published an article in Hadar condemning the government's response to the protestors. In it, he referring to article 15 of the nation's constitution: "Every person has the right to life. No person may be deprived of his life except as a punishment for a serious criminal offence determined by law." Hadar was subsequently banned and he was arrested that November along with senior leaders of the then-leading opposition group, Coalition for Unity and Democracy, for alleged involvement in the demonstrations. The group was also charged with "genocide, attempt to subvert the constitutional system [and] high treason."
In 2007, after nearly two years in prison, he pleaded guilty to "inciting and conspiring to commit outrages to the constitutional order." He was given a life sentence before being released from Kality Prison on a conditional pardon along with journalist Wosonseged Gebrekidan of Addis Zena on 20 July 2007. While many editors and journalists decided to flee the country after their pardon, Dawit decided to remain. The government initially denied him a publishing license, which would allow him to continue his work, but eventually granted it after public pressure.
In March 2008, Dawit began publishing the Awramba Times newspaper, described by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2010 as the "country's only Amharic-language newspaper that dares question authorities" and by CNN's Diane McCarthy as "one of Ethiopia's last remaining independent publications" in 2011. Dawit was awarded the CPJ's International Press Freedom Award in November 2010 to honor his work and commitment, specifically "risking his freedom and security in the course of his reporting." In June 2011, CNN covered his story as part of its AfricanVoices program. During the interview, Diwa said that the Ethiopian press existed in a climate of fear, claiming that, after the 2005 election, it wasn't "easy for journalists in Ethiopia to do their work independently." The same month, Awramba's deputy editor, Woubshet Taye, was imprisoned on terrorism charges, which CPJ determined was due to his work at Awramba. He served seven years before being pardoned in 2018.

## Exile and return

In November 2011, Dawit was given a tip-off that the Ministry of Justice and the Government Communication Affairs was planning to revoke his pardon and put him back in prison. This followed Addis Zemen's publication about him, a smear column alleging him of being linked to terrorist organisations and demanding the government and security forces "take action" against him. He had sued the newspaper earlier in the year for defamation but the judge threw out the case in July. After Dawit fled to the United States, a representative of the Ministry of Justice and a federal prosecutor both denied that any plans for his arrest existed. While Awramba Times ceased publication when he left the country, he relaunched it as an online newspaper based in Washington, D.C. in May 2012.
In July 2013, Horn Affairs reported that Dawit had fallen out of favour with opposition groups, particularly the right wing, who called him a "government agent." Zehabesha.com accused him of secretly meeting with Ethiopia's foreign minister, Tedros Adhanom, at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, which Dawit refuted by providing plane tickets showing he had been in Arizona at the time of the purported meeting. Seemingly in retaliation, Awramba published more pieces criticising major opposition personalities and leaked a recording of Berhanu Nega discussing a bribe he had received from Eritrea to finance Ginbot 7's "military activities", the online network ESAT and "domestic peaceful struggles and diplomatic activities".
In October 2014, after two years in the U.S., Dawit announced his decision to hand over his asylum papers and return home, saying that, while he had reasonable grounds to flee, the problems were "not insurmountable" in hindsight. He added that the difficulty of doing journalistic work from abroad was the main deciding factor. He continued to manage the Awramba Times after his return to Ethiopia and, as of 2020, had become popular on Twitter, posting on topics related to the Tigray War, such as ethnic profiling of Tigrayans; Tigrayan refugees being stopped from fleeing to Sudan; and Abiy Ahmed's mischaracterisation of the refugees' demographics. On 30 November 2020, Dawit was detained at a restaurant in Addis Ababa for publishing "false information" and damaging the government's image. He was ordered to appear in court on 2 December and 15 December. On his first court date, he was accused of "disseminating inaccurate information, inciting violence, and attempting to violate the constitution", and the police were granted permission to hold him for 13 days while the investigation continued. The second date saw him accused of working with opposition media that aligned with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, spreading false information through social media and inciting violence on his Twitter page. The police were allowed to keep him in custody for 10 more days. His next court date was set for 10 January 2021.