By Monica Campbell

Along an isolated stretch of Ethiopian desert, under a gray July sky, soldiers dragged journalist Martin Schibbye from a truck, stood him up, raised their Kalashnikovs, and fired. The shots whistled by his head. “I thought, just get it over with,” Schibbye said. “I’d given up.” By that time, he thought his colleague, photojournalist Johan Persson, was already dead. Soldiers had dragged Persson in a different direction and fired repeatedly. Those shots turned out to be near-misses as well, intended to intimidate and instill fear.

The two Swedish journalists were allowed to live that day, but they were not allowed their freedom. For more than 400 days, they were jailed in Addis Ababa, shuttled from solitary cells to rat-infested rooms crowded with prisoners, some with tuberculosis.

The ordeal ended as the two journalists, fearing years in prison, finally relented. Yes, we collaborated with terrorists. That is why we were jailed. Yes, they told Ethiopian state television, we respect the court. All lies, of course, Schibbye and Persson said after they were freed in September 2012 on a pardon. “It was humiliating, but we felt forced to say those things,” Schibbye told CPJ. “We were still unsure they’d actually let us go.” Read More at CPJ

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