{"id":219321,"date":"2018-04-16T17:40:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T21:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=219321"},"modified":"2019-02-11T04:25:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T09:25:22","slug":"end-of-internet-blackout-in-ethiopia-guardedly-welcomed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/219321","title":{"rendered":"End of internet blackout in Ethiopia guardedly welcomed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Reuters) – Internet users in Ethiopia said on Monday the government appeared to have ended a three-month online blackout, raising hopes of a relaxation of restrictions after the arrival of a new prime minister who promised reforms.<\/p>\n

Mobile and broadband internet services shut down in December in many regions outside the capital that were hit by unrest that threatened the ruling coalition\u2019s tight hold on country.<\/p>\n

Rights groups accused the government of trying to stop them spreading news online and organizing rallies calling for land rights and other freedoms – charges the government denied.<\/p>\n

But internet users said they had noticed services returning following the April 2 inauguration of Abiy Ahmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very happy that it is back to normal,\u201d said Hassan Bulcha, who runs an internet cafe in Shashemene, a town in the state of Oromiya which has seen some of the worst violence since protests erupted in 2015.<\/p>\n

Groups that monitor internet usage in Ethiopia – one of the last countries on the continent with a state telecoms monopoly – gave the news a guarded welcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestoration of Ethiopia\u2019s internet is a short-term win in a long-term struggle,\u201d said Peter Micek of Access Now, a group that said it recorded two large-scale internet shutdowns in Ethiopia in 2017 and three in 2016.<\/p>\n

The move was a step forward, but worries remained about the government\u2019s wider commitment to freedoms, said CIPESA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa), a Uganda-based body that lists Britain among its funders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be too optimistic to expect that the new prime minister\u2019s government will overnight dismantle all the layers of authoritarian control that have for decades been at the center of state power in Ethiopia,\u201d said Juliet Nanfuka from CIPESA.<\/p>\n

The country remains under a state of emergency imposed in February this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Internet users in Ethiopia said on Monday the government appeared to have ended a three-month online blackout, raising hopes of a relaxation of restrictions after the arrival of a new prime minister who promised reforms. Mobile and broadband internet services shut down in December in many regions outside the capital that were hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-V3r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219323,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219321\/revisions\/219323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}