Current Cases

Dawit Isaak and 12 imprisoned Eritrean Journalists

Eritrea

Status: imprisoned

August 1, 2025 | PEN Canada

Background

In September 2001, 13 journalists were arrested after Eritrean president Afeworki forced the country’s independent newspapers to close, leaving only the state-run Hadas. Those 13 journalists were each made honorary members of PEN Canada:

Said Abdelkader (writer, editor of Admas), Yusuf Mohamed Ali (editor-in-chief of Tsigenay), Emanuel Asrat (editor of Zemen), Temesken Ghebreyesus (reporter for Keste Debena), Mattewos Habteab (editor-in-chief of Meqaleh), Dawit Habtemichael (reporter for Meqaleh), Medhanie Haile (editor-in-chief of Keste Debena), Dawit Isaak (writer and co-owner of Setit), Seyoum Tsehaye (TV and radio journalist; weekly columnist for Setit), and Fesshaye Yohannes “Joshua” (playwright, poet; publisher of Setit).

Of these 13 journalists, reports in 2007 indicated that Ali, Abdelkader, Haile and Yohannes died in custody due to harsh conditions, a lack of medical attention, and reported torture. Habteab, Habtemichael, Ghebreyesus and Yohannes have not been heard from and are presumed dead.

Those who remain alive, more than 20 years later, are now the longest-detained journalists in the world.

Case Updates

Magnitsky Sanctions

Sept 2021

To mark the 20th anniversary of their case, PEN International and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) were part of an international coalition of human rights groups that called for Magnitsky sanctions against the Eritrean officials responsible for the journalists’ imprisonment; two years later, in September 2023, RWCHR publishes an op-ed in The Globe & Mail calling again for Magnitsky sanctions