Last week, Betelhem Dawit and the rest of her family publicly and categorically admonished the objectionable and unsavoury nature of the campaign adopted by several actors for their own political agenda in the Swedish media that has got nothing to do with freeing her father. Instead of getting the message by acknowledging their wrongdoing and respect the views of the closest family of Dawit Issak, this week they continue their madness by outdoing their previous immoral intentions.
One has to wonder about the sanity of the Swedish Media when it comes to their coverage about Eritrea. In one single afternoon they have managed to show the utter contempt and disrespect they have for Eritrea and Eritreans. The Swedish media have managed to conjure an image of Eritrea that can only be described as detached from any kind of reality. It is an ugly concoction of xenophobia, commercial gain and political supremacy that has engulfed the nature of Dawit Issak’s case which personalities in the Swedish media and busybodies have catapulted this case into an international fiefdom. The teenager Betelhem Dawit, speaking on behalf of her family last week, has asked all the actors to stop politicising her father’s case, and the closest family will handle the issue.
Yesterday, Thursday 27th of October at about 16:00 hrs, all four major News-Papers The Expressen, Aftonbladet, Dagen Nyhetter and SvD have posted news about Dawit Issak’s death in various forms. At some time in the afternoon almost all of them seem to be certain that ‘Dawit Issak may be dead’.
A society that claims to believe in an open, fair and free flow of information relies on its media outlets to present balanced and objective journalism to the public. After all these papers are heavily involved in shaping the opinions of the Swedish society and carries a heavy burden to check their news sources carefully and refrain from biased reporting and especially avoid their personal agendas to obscure from independent reporting. All this kind of objectivity has gone out of the window from the Swedish media when it comes to Eritrea.
Any type of cheap, unconfirmed, wild accusation, sensational news, lies, smearing campaign and all sorts of unethical reporting about Eritrea is totally acceptable in Swedish media and they have managed to misrepresent the nation of Eritrea to the public.
The Expressen, AftonBladet and DN have no qualms to report two items of the same news that conflict with each other factually. As long as it can give them a sensational head-line to catch the attention of its readers. Factual and objective journalism does not seem to be the guiding principles. Especially when it comes to speculations and hearsay about sensitive issue of a death of a father with a young family. All three papers where at first stepping over each other to claim that Dawit Issak is Dead (although they leave a lot of room to wriggle out of it legally later), and then after one hour almost all of them have carried news that says ‘heavy criticism against Claims of Dawit’s death’.
If you try to understand why they wrote such an extraordinary headlines; it is very easy to see the reason. A radio conversation between three men who have a long axe to grind with the Eritrean government and people are at the centre of the storm. The radio conversation was between a man that can be only described as a crusader against Eritrea (Lars Adaktussons) was talking to two people who are known in the Eritrean Communities as a Shoplifter (Mehari Abraha) and another person who has been proven Fraudster of funds ( Arhe Hamednaca).
These people have long lost any type of credibility and objectivity by the shear nonstop lies and misinformation they spew wherever they appear in Swedish media.
If the Swedish media have had any respect for the values of Eritrean people and even a respect for Dawit Issak (the person they claim they are working to free) they would understand that such kind of news is held in highest regard and sensitivity in Eritrea’s culture and would not venture in such kind of immoral and uncultured behaviour to score some headlines. That’s why the Eritrean people totally reject those few Eritreans who are willing to smear and destabilise Eritrea for their own narrow agenda. Mehari and Arhe fall squarely in this category.
It is very clear that the rug was pulled from under their feet after last week’s interview of Dawit Issak’s family when the brave daughter told them to stop the dirty campaign run in the name of her father, and this week they are trying to resurrect the dirty campaign by coming up with even more dirty tricks and sensational claims without shred of any tangible evidence. It is madness in Swedish media!
In a more sickening turn of events, we learn that the Chief Editor of the Expressen Thomas Mattson, the top crusader against Eritrea has visited the family house of Dawit Issak to cajole, coerce and bribe the family to continue to support his crusade of bringing down the Eritrean government to its knees. It is utterly distasteful to witness a man who has made his main goal of his paper to increase his sales of paper by making the case of Dawit Issak as one of a global issue by any means possible.
