Serkalem Fasil

Who is Serkalem Fasil?

Serkalem Fasil is an Ethiopian journalist and former co-publisher of the newspapers Asqual, Menilik, and Satenaw.

In 1997, Fasil began her journalistic career at the newspaper Wenchef. The following year, at the age of twenty, she founded her own newspaper, Menilik, put out by her own publishing house. She began another, Asqual, in 2001, and a third, Satenaw, in 2004. She served Menilik's deputy editor and the chairwoman of Satenaw's board.

In November 2005, Fasil was arrested along with thirteen other reporters, including her husband, Eskinder Nega, after publishing articles critical of the Ethiopian government's actions during the May 2005 parliamentary elections. Fasil and her co-defendants were charged with "treason, outrages against the Constitution and incitement to armed conspiracy".

Amnesty International identified her as a prisoner of conscience, who had not advocated or used violence. She was being held in a Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa in a rat-, cockroach-, and flea-infested cell. While in prison, Fasil gave birth to her and Eskinder's son Nafkot. She was released by presidential pardon on 10 April 2007, along with her husband and 27 other defendants.