An Independent Journalist in Eritrea

Officially I dont exist. I am an independent journalist in the small

east African country of Eritrea who after 12 years here and over 150

internationally published articles, I find that officially I dont exist.

According to the international media there are no independent

journalists in Eritrea and inspite of multiple interviews on

international news channels they persist that I dont exist.

Committee to Protect Journalists (aka Committee of Suspect

Journalists) published an article of mine (“Ethiopia Bombs Itself) on

its website where, as always, I identified myself as an independent

journalist in Eritrea and still CPJ said that I did not exist later

that year in their annual report on press freedoms.

I contribute to independent websites across Africa and am listed as a

columnist in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya and

south Asia, amongst other countries, for years now yet it doesnt seem

to matter, it still persists that I dont exist.
I have contributed almost 100 articles over the past 15 years to

Counterpunch, which recieves 2 million unique visitors every month

making it the largest left wing english website on the planet but even

this doesnt matter, there are no independent journalists here in our

small, peaceful east African country of Eritrea.
Why is this you may ask? Maybe its because we are socialist, and all

though Ethiopia seems headed in our direction, Eritrea remains, like

Cuba in Latin America, the only socialist country in Africa.

Socialism is always bad, right? End of conversation, what else do you

need to know?. Especially what its really like on the ground in

Eritrea from an independent journalist.
Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and

reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook,

thomascmountain on Twitter or best contact him at thomascmountain at g

mail dot com