Eritrea-Report-Final

22 — EASO Country of Origin Information Report — Eritrea. Country Focus
• College of Business and Economics, in Halhale
• College of Marine Science and Technology, in Massawa
• College of Health Sciences, in Asmara
• Orotta School of Medicine and Dental Hygiene, in Asmara (97)
The colleges are subject to joint academic and military management (98). According to some sources, students are
under military command and divided into units (99). However, according to another report, the military regime at EIT
in Mai Nefhi has been relaxed and students are allowed to travel to Asmara freely, for example (100). With the loss
of many former University of Asmara professors, the dispersed colleges and institutes are increasingly staffed by
teachers brought from India on short-term contracts (101). Students of the colleges are assigned to civilian national
service (cf. Chapter 3.6) after graduating (102), with some starting work as a 12th year teacher at Sawa (103). Others
are assigned to rural elementary schools (104). Students who drop out are conscripted for military service (105).
Colleges offer two- or three-year diploma courses and four- or five-year bachelor degree courses. Postgraduate
masters courses are being introduced. College students are not charged fees and the government also pays for their
food and accommodation. Students only officially graduate from college after completing their mandatory national
service. They may request a Transcript of Records in the meantime, however (106).
1.6 Media
There are no free media in Eritrea. All media are controlled by the Ministry of Information (107), which is responsible
for the following media outlets:
• The following newspapers appear between once and three times per week: Eritrea Profile (English), Hadas Ertra
(Tigrinya), Al-Hadisa (Arabic), Tigrigta (Tigrinya) and Geled (Tigrinya)
• The news agency ERINA
• The multilingual television station EriTV
• The radio station Dimtsi Hafash (Voice of the Masses), which broadcasts in 11 different languages, and the FM
network Radio Zara
• Shabait.com, the Ministry of Information’s website, which can be used to access the above media outlets online (108)
Several private newspapers were published in Eritrea in the first decade after independence: Meqaleh, Setit, Wintana,
Admas, Mana, Qeste-Demenna, Zemen and Tsigenai (109). On 18 September 2001, however, all free media were shut
down and many journalists were imprisoned by the authorities (110). The last foreign media correspondents left
Eritrea in 2004 (111) and in recent years there have been several cases of journalists working for government-owned
(97) NOKUT, Report on recognition of higher education in Eritrea and Ethiopia, January 2013, p. 2; Tesfagiorgis, M., Eritrea, 2010, p. 200; Europa Regional Surveys
of the World, Africa South of the Sahara 2015, 44th edition, 2014, p. 459.
(98) Müller, T.R., ‘Bare life and the developmental state: implications of the militarization of high education in Eritrea’, March 2008, p. 122; International Crisis
Group, Eritrea: Ending the Exodus? 8 August 2014, p. 6; Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014; Tronvoll, K., and Mekonnen, D.R., The African
Garrison State. Human Rights & Political Development in Eritrea, 2014, p. 181.
(99) Kibreab, G., The Open-Ended Eritrean National Service: The Driver of Forced Migration, 15-16 October 2014, p. 9; Tesfagiorgis, M., Eritrea, 2010, p. 203; Kibreab,
G., Eritrea. A Dream Deferred, 2009, p. 105.
(100) Müller, Tanja R., ‘Beyond the siege state — tracing hybridity during a recent visit to Eritrea’, September 2012, p. 455.
(101) Connell, D., Eritrea: Take me to prison — they have food, 6 March 2015.
(102) Udlændingestyrelsen (Danish Immigration Service), Eritrea — Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return, Appendix
edition, December 2014, p. 11.
(103) Müller, Tanja R., ‘Beyond the siege state — tracing hybridity during a recent visit to Eritrea’, September 2012, p. 456.
(104) Connell, D., Eritrea: Take me to prison — they have food, 6 March 2015.
(105) Kibreab, G., The Open-Ended Eritrean National Service: The Driver of Forced Migration, 15-16 October 2014, p. 9.
(106) NOKUT, Report on recognition of higher education in Eritrea and Ethiopia, January 2013, p. 3, 6, 10; US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 2013 — Eritrea, 27 February 2014, p. 9.
(107) Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2014. Eritrea, 25 August 2014; Reporters Without Borders, Contribution on the situation of media freedom in Eritrea
by Reporters Without Borders, an NGO with special consultative status, 24 June 2013, p. 1.
(108) BBC, Eritrea profile — Media, 3 December 2014; Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2014. Eritrea, 25 August 2014.
(109) Tesfagiorgis, M., Eritrea, 2010, p. 314; Article 19, Eritrea: A Nation Silenced, June 2013, p. 10.
(110) BBC, Eritrea profile — Media, 3 December 2014; Tesfagiorgis, M., Eritrea, 2010, pp. 314-315; Kibreab, G., Eritrea. A Dream Deferred, 2009, pp. 42-44; Reporters
Without Borders, Contribution on the situation of media freedom in Eritrea by Reporters Without Borders, an NGO with special consultative status, 24 June
2013, p. 2; HRW, Service for Life. State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea, 16 April 2009, p. 56.
(111) Tronvoll, K., The lasting struggle for freedom in Eritrea, 2009, p. 101; HRW, Service for Life. State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea, 16 April 2009,
p. 57. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it was in 2007: CPJ, Attacks on the Press 2012. Eritrea, 14 February 2013.