Reuters Report on Emergency Proclamation Misleading: Fact Check

Addis Ababa November 12/2021 (ENA) The report by Reuters claiming that the State of Emergency (SoE) proclamation compels citizens to hold ID cards which disclose their ethnicity is misleading and misrepresents the requirements of the proclamation, according to Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check.

The State of Emergency allows citizens to make use of various alternative identity documents, including driver’s license, employment ID card, and national passport.

None of these documents include the ethnicity of their bearer, Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check noted.

Furthermore, since the coming into office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed most municipalities that used to include ethnic identity in residence ID cards have discontinued this practice.

Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check underscored that the failure of Reuters to take these obvious facts into account shows at best a great dereliction of duty on the part of those who wrote and edited the story.