REUTERS REPORTER RESTRICTED TO ASMARA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000403

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E AND DRL
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2019
TAGS: PREL PROP PGOV ER
SUBJECT: REUTERS REPORTER RESTRICTED TO ASMARA

REF: 08 ASMARA 430

Classified By: CDA Melinda Tabler-Stone for reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) After nine weeks in country, Reuters correspondent
Jeremy Clarke (protect) predicts he may serve his entire time
in Eritrea without ever being allowed to leave the capital.
Clarke has had early success thus far, interviewing President
Isaias only weeks after his arrival (his predecessor was not
granted an interview until after two years),and is on a
first name basis with Minister of Information, Ali Abdu.
Beneath the accommodating facade, however, Clarke admitted to
poloff the Eritrean government (GSE) is actively working to
control what information the reporter has access to. So far,
Clarke has been denied permission to a European Commission
sponsored film festival in Keren and to the Bisha mining site
via helicopter. Both permit requests were accompanied by
letters of invitation from the EC and the mining companies,
respectively. (NOTE: The mining companies have by far the
best access to travel permits, with the EC in a distant
second. END NOTE). Nonetheless, the Ministry of Information
called Clarke both times to inform him he would not be
allowed to travel.


2. (C) Clarke believes the GSE's overall strategy is to allow
him access to just enough information to print a story, such
as a basic overview of the mining companies, without being
able to learn enough to criticize the GSE. The plan entails
keeping Clarke isolated in Asmara, where poverty is less
pronounced than in the surrounding rural areas. Clarke
currently has a travel request to visit the economic free
zone in Massawa, and doubts the GSE will grant the permit for
similar reasons. He confided that he feels he is a token
that the Isaias regime will trot out to prove a "free press"
exists in Eritrea.


3. (C) Reuters is the only news agency in Eritrea to have a
reporter. Al-Jazeera is known to have a presence in country,
but has not reported anything in recent months to Post's
knowledge. Both Deutsche Welle and Voice of America (VOA)
have Eritrean stringers in Asmara, however the GSE warned the
VOA stringer to stop reporting in 2008 (reftel). Eritrea is
considered "the world's biggest prison for journalists" by
Reporters Without Borders.


4. (C) COMMENT: The GSE has been on an internal public
relations drive as of late, printing headline stories denying
food shortages in Eritrea and playing up the hardships of
living in industrialized societies. Confining the sole
international reporter to Asmara allows the GSE to continue
its lie-and-deny approach. As the situation on the ground
continues to deteriorate, keeping Reuters off the scent will
be of increasing importance to the GSE.
Tabler-Stone