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Ethiopia Warns News Outlets Not to 'Mischaracterize' Tigray
Voice of America
Ethiopia's media regulator is warning foreign news outlets that publishing specific references that it says mischaracterize the country's war-torn northern Tigray region will be met with legal consequences.
"In reviewing and monitoring the news reports, the Ethiopian Media Authority [EMA] has found that some foreign media are repeatedly characterizing [the Tigray People’s Liberation Front - TPLF] as a national army by calling it the Tigray Defense Force or TDF," said an official statement issued on agency letterhead Friday that was sent to VOA. An earlier warning had been sent to at least two foreign media outlets. The statement sent to VOA, signed by agency chief Yonatan Tesfaye Regassa, comes one day after the EMA revoked the license of the Addis Standard’s publisher, accusing the monthly magazine and news website of advancing the agenda of a "terrorist group," without providing more specifics.
Dana Shem Tov, sister of Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, reacts as she watches his televised release by Hamas militants at the family home in Tel Aviv on Feb. 22, 2025. A woman mourns at a memorial for deceased hostages Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz at “Hostages Square,” while Israelis gather while waiting for the release of six hostages in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 22, 2025. Omer Wenkert, a hostage held in Gaza since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is escorted by Hamas militants as he is released in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 22, 2025.
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A mahout sprays water over elephants during their daily bath in a river, at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala on Feb. 16, 2025 as Sri Lanka's main elephant orphanage marked its 50th anniversary. Tourists take pictures as elephants return to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after taking their daily bath in a river in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025. Elephants stroll across the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, on Feb. 16, 2025.
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A poster shows pictures of the Bibas family, top row from second left: Yarden, Shiri, and their sons Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Feb. 21, 2025. Words above read, '37 members of Kibbutz Nir Oz are still missing.' Palestinian Hamas militants and people gather at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 20, 2025.