The Eritrean Community requests correction to the Italian press

Everything is business as usual in Asmara despite fake news of Asmara school protest deaths circulated in Western press - PHOTO CREDIT: Hizbawi Menghisteab‏

The Eritrean Community requests correction to the Italian press

PRESS RELEASE

The Eritrean community in Italy and the world live with anguish on the new international media attack against Eritrea where the false news of "28 deaths and more than 100 injured in Asmara" is reported as an anti-government protest. To report the news first was an Ethiopian Associate Press (AP) reporter who quotes as the source an armed opposition group based in Ethiopia.

Previously Yemane Gebremeskel, the Eritrean Information Minister had tweeted the story: "Small demonstration by one school in Asmara dispersed without any casuality…" To support this, no Western Embassy, including the Farnesina, has reported any deaths or injuries, as stated by the number two person of the Italian Embassy in Asmara Diego Solinas to the BBC in Tigrigna. The first press statement was released by the US Embassy on their website, alerting their fellow citizens in Eritrea.

The fake news started from Addis Ababa with the aim of diverting the public's attention from what is happening in Ethiopia. The dead who are there, which are being ignored by the Italian press, are the Oromo and the Amhara who daily die at gunshot height by the military Agazi of the TPLF regime. Over the last few years, their peaceful protests ended in tragedy in Oromia, where thousands of protesters were killed.

The Eritrean Community expresses its full concern with recognizing another international media attack on a narrow religious ground to destabilize Eritrea guilty of being a secular state. If a Koranic school impels the girls to wear the hijab, the Eritrean Ministry of Education has the legitimate right and duty to oblige all students, whatever religion, to wear the non-confessional school uniform. Therefore, why publish these very serious and false news by inventing dead and injured? Do you want to foment an interreligious conflict in Eritrea where for centuries have coexisted in harmony both Christians and Muslims who have fought together to free Eritrea from Ethiopia?

Given the severity of the false news that the Italian press has decided to divulge, the Eritrean Community calls on all the Italian press, the Ordine dei Giornalisti and the Carta di Roma to verify its source and to present evidence that reinforce their decision to publish a tale news. Otherwise, the Community requests this information be corrected by means of press without retracting.

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