Prominent Ethiopian filmmaker and organizer of the annual Ethiopian domestic film award show, Gumma film awards, Yonas Berhane has been arrested by security forces, local reports indicate.
According to a Social Media Post by Prominent Ethiopian Journalist, Elias Meseret, Yonas Berhane was arrested along with his wife by security forces on Friday late evening in Addis Ababa.
Yonas wife was later released, but Yonas is still in detention.
Yonas who has around two decades’ experience in filmmaking has been organizing the Gumma Film Awards since 2014.
Ethiopian authorities haven’t so far provided explanation for the ongoing detention of Yonas Berhane.
But, the arrest came only hours after a makeup protest by a female journalist and social media personality, Filagot Abraham nickname “Filagot Magna” at the Gumma Film award ceremony held in Skylight hotel in Addis Ababa earlier on Friday went viral.
Filagot had painted herself with red ink on forehead on the shape of a bullet wound as well as on her lips in the shape of a stitched mouth.
According to Elias Meseret, the organizers of the Gumma Film award show were interrogated by security forces afterwards who wanted to know the whereabouts of Filagot Abraham.
Filagot a program show host at the local Abay television who also is a teacher at a local university is a prominent Tiktok blogger with more than 426,000 followers.
According to Mereja.com sources an arrest warrant has been issued for Filagot who was preparing to be a judge at a local talent show program scheduled to be broadcast soon on the state owned Ethiopian Television.
