Thread by @BeqaYiakl

Today's spotlight goes out to Abraham T Zere @abraham_zere for his courageous, relentless and impactful advocacy of free press in Eritrea through his advocacy, writing, and PEN Eritrea.
#Eritrea2020 #SundaySpotlight
#Yiakl #WeAreComingHome #Eritrea

Abraham studied journalism and mass-communication at University of Asmara. Since his last year of high-school, he was a contributing writer at the flourishing independent newspapers that have been summarily banned in September 2001, amid political crackdown. #Yiakl #Eritrea

Abraham is a tireless advocate for Eritrean independent journalists who have been languishing incommunicado detention since September 2001. He works to keep their plight at the forefront of resistance as they had been reduced to names and numbers for lack of access of information

Currently Abraham is the executive director of PEN Eritrea. Apart from that, he writes for other international globaljournalist.org/2017/02/projec…

He profiled six detained Eritrean journalists for The Guardian in 2015 and brought their work in world stage panel discussions theguardian.com/world/2015/aug…

Thanks to Abraham’s continuous advocacy, Amanuel Asrat was awarded the Oxfam/Novib Freedom of Expression Award in 2016: peneritrea.com/blog/eritrean-…

In April 2018, Abraham testified on the human rights abuses held in Washington DC before Tom Lantos of the Human Rights Commission of the United States Congress (TLHRC): “Eritrea: Root Causes of the Refugee Crisis”. peneritrea.com/blog/tom-lanto…

Abraham co-translated a book and selected articles of Dawit Isaak from Tigrinya into English. Isaak is one of the journalists who has been held in Eritrea’s underground custody without charges. Later translated into French and German. #Yiakl #Eritrea

Since 2015,Abraham has been contributing in filling the acute information gap on Eritrea’s dictatorship through firsthand sources,his lived experiences & reliable informal channels.His written work on gross human rights abuses and lack of freedom of expression have been published

among others, in The Guardian, The Independent, Al Jazeera English,Mail and Guardian, Dissent Magazine, and Index on Censorship Magazine.He has also been featured in other media such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Al Jazeera TV,and book Global Journalism. #Yiakl #Eritrea

In July 2017, Abraham gave an invited talk at Amnesty International of Swiss Office. He was also invited to speak at European Parliament on human rights situation, and share his lived experiences of Eritrea’s regime, in Brussels in November, 2019: twitter.com/search?q=Abrah…

In his capacity as an executive director of PEN Eritrea, he has supported many Eritrean exiled writers and journalists fleeing persecution, get resettled in a third country. Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrhatu peneritrea.com/blog/eritrean-….

Abraham is a prolific short story writer, He recently published his debut book ካልእ ስለ ዘየሎ– a collection of 16 short stories written between 2002 and 2004, with Emkulu Publisher in January 2020, to a much critical acclaim emkulu.com/product/%e1%8a….