Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Radio Erena: a beacon of hope for Eritrea





An interesting behind the scenes look of clandestine station, Radio Erena International.

"You have to understand: no information is available there at all, about the outside world or internally"

Ten  years ago, Biniam Simon, a journalist at Eri-TV, Eritrea's state television channel, was informed by his government overlords that he would, after all, be allowed to travel to Japan to attend a seminar on video production. This, to put it mildly, was surprising. Those whose leave Eritrea, a single party state with one of the worst human rights records in the world, usually do so only by clandestine and extremely risky means. But if Simon was astonished, he was also realistic. "They only allowed me to go because they thought there was no way to escape to Japan,: he says. "Japan had agreed I would be returned to Eritrea." Knowing this, he didn't allow himself even to toy with the idea of defection, He made no plans. He dreamed no dreams. He hoped only to enjoy a few peaceful days outside the prison of his homeland.

Additional story at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/16/radio-erena-beacon-of-hope-for-eritrea-biniam-simon-paris

Station website with English link: http://erena.org/

Station summer schedule, all times UTC
1730-1800 mtwhf in Arabic on 11965 kHz
1700-1730 mtwhf in Tigninya on 11965 kHz
1700-1800 Sat/Sun in Tigrinya on 11965 kHz