This archive report was first published on 4 July 2020.
Kenyan journalist Yassin Juma, a former NTV employee, was arrested and detained in Ethiopia on July 3, 2020, by the country's military while covering protests in the Oromia Region.
The protests erupted following the death of musician Hachalu Hundessa, an activist for the Oromo ethnic group, who was shot dead in Addis Ababa on June 29, 2020.
Over 80 people have been killed in the protests staged over the killing of the musician.
Contrary reports suggest that Juma was arrested due to his association with Ethiopian activist Jawar Mohammed, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government.
Juma was reportedly apprehended at Jawar's home, where he had been living and working as an experienced independent journalist.
However, the Ethiopian government had previously granted Juma clemency, allowing him to live and work in the country for 10 years.
Before his arrest, Juma had been using his platform to cover the plight of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group that has fought a low-level insurgency in southern Ethiopia for over 30 years.
He had also been barred from traveling to Ethiopia in 2009 after a documentary he produced covering tensions between Kenya and Ethiopia was deemed sensitive by the Ethiopian government.
Additionally, Juma was arrested in Kenya in January 2016 by the Anti-Terror Police Unit over his social media posts regarding the attack on a Kenya Defence Forces camp in El-Adde, Somalia.
