Media crackdown 'unlawful', says Ethiopia rights body

Ethiopia's Human Rights Commission has condemned a wave of arrests of journalists.

At least 19 media workers have been detained, which the government-affiliated rights body has called "unlawful".

Maaza Mohammed, an editor of a YouTube channel that has been critical of the government, was among those arrested on Saturday.

She spent more than a month in detention late last year when Ethiopia issued an emergency decree in connection with the civil war in the country's north..

The mass arrests began last week, coinciding with the launch of what authorities have called a "law enforcement operation" in one of the country's regions, Amhara, where more than 4,000 people have been detained in under two weeks.

The commission's head, Daniel Bekele, called the move "a new low" for a country that has often been accused of creating a hostile environment for independent media.

This article originally appeared in BBC News

Photo: AFP