Fesshaye Yohannes

Who is Fesshaye Yohannes?

Fesshaye Yohannes was an Eritrean journalist who founded the weekly journal Setit and was a recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2002 International Press Freedom Award. Fesshaye was imprisoned without charges in September 2001, and died in government custody.

Fesshaye became a journalist in the early 1990s, after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia. Previously, he had been a member of the guerrilla movement fighting for Eritrean independence in the Eritrean War of Independence. In 1994, he founded the weekly journal Setit, one of the country's first independent newspapers, named for the only Eritrean river to have water all year. Setit soon gained the largest circulation in Eritrea. The journal covered difficult and controversial topics, including poverty, prostitution, and the lack of resources for handicapped veterans of the Eritrean independence movement. In addition to his journalism, Fesshaye also worked as a playwright.