Every day from Paris, Radio Erena broadcasts to the Eritrean diaspora but also directly to the inhabitants of this country in the Horn of Africa, a veritable information black hole. However, due to a lack of funding, the dissident radio station is threatened with closure after 15 years of existence. "It's a collective mission, a mission of hope, we wanted to hear the voice of the public," says the station's editor-in-chief, Amanuel Ghimai Bhata.
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00:00That is a collective mission, a mission of hope, one thing, like, you know, in Eritrea
00:27in 2001, Eritrean government decided to close all the media, private media.
00:34So at some point, we only hear the government's voice, which is merely propaganda.
00:40So we want to hear the voice of the public.
00:42What does the people say?
00:58Well, people send us different, different, different opinions.
01:04Sometimes they criticize us, the way we handle it.
01:07Like, for example, when we say President Isaias, some are so nervous.
01:10Why do you call him president? He's a dictator. Who elected him?
01:14So, well, and some just send us messages telling us that we are doing good.
01:21And some send us information, information from where they are, what they see.
01:27Hi, I'm the head of the Central European Headquarters.
01:35In Eritrea, there is no journalism.
01:37Journalists have been in prison since 2001 for the oldest of them.
01:42There is no media.
01:43The only organs that remain in place are organs affiliated to the state,
01:47which are content to make propaganda.
01:49There is extremely limited internet access and under tight surveillance.
01:53There are very few foreign journalists who have managed to enter Eritrea in the last 25 years.
01:59Those who did, in general, were, once again, closely monitored.
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