September 21, 2003	Sunday	Rajab 23, 1424

PARIS, Sept 20: International journalists’ rights organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has appealed to the Eritrean government to free 14 of the country’s leading journalists imprisoned for the past two years and to authorize again the country’s independent media, which were closed down in September 2001.

RSF said that this exceptional and unique situation meant that “Eritreans have had only one official news source during the past two years. The closures and arrests have, as a result, made Eritrea the sole country in Africa to authorize the existence of only one media, which happens to be operated by the government.”