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Ethiopian TikTok journalist Eyob Shimelis detained after corruption reporting

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Ethiopian TikTok journalist Eyob Shimelis detained after corruption reporting

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Nairobi, December 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopian authorities to immediately release journalist Eyob Shimelis, who has been in detention since December 1 on accusations of spreading false information and defamation.

Police arrested Eyob, founder and reporter of TikTok-based Sidama News, which reports on corruption in Ethiopia’s southern Sidama state, at around 10 a.m. outside his home in the regional capital Hawassa and took him to the capital’s Addis Ketema sub-city police station, two people with knowledge of the case told CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. Eyob was questioned about his recent reporting on alleged abuses by regional officials, they said.

“It is alarming that a journalist exposing alleged corruption is being met with arrests and intimidation,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Ethiopian authorities must release Eyob Shimeles immediately and stop using security forces and the courts to suppress independent reporting.”

When Eyob appeared before Hawassa City First Instance Court on December 3, it approved investigators’ request to keep him in remand until December 9, which it then extended until December 17, according to the two individuals.  

Eyob has faced repeated threats and intimidation, which have forced him into hiding throughout 2025, and fled to neighboring Kenya and Uganda for months, only returning after receiving informal assurances that he would not be harmed, those two individuals said.

On September 29, Eyob was detained on allegations of defamation, which is a civil, not a criminal, offense in Ethiopia. He was released on October 4, without appearing in court, on condition that he apologize publicly — which he did.

In his statement, Eyob asked regional leaders for forgiveness for his “use of words that were demeaning” and promised to “continue to be the voice of the public by reporting only the truth and doing so in a way that is far removed from emotional bias.”

CPJ sent queries via messaging app to the Sidama police and the region’s communications affairs bureau but did not receive responses. An email address provided by the bureau through its Facebook page returned an error message.



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Hungary’s Sziget festival is known as a safe place to express yourself freely. Photo: Sandor Csudai/www.facebook.com/csudaisandor This article first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Index on Censorship, The monster unleashed: How Hungary’s illiberal vision is seducing the Western world published on 2 April 2026. Crossing Budapest’s brutalist K-Bridge across the Danube to Óbuda Island on a grey spring day feels like the last journey of a condemned prisoner. The steel truss bridge was built as a temporary measure in 1955, a year before the uprising in which university students and ordinary citizens took to the streets to protest against the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi. The single set of railway tracks suggests a one-way journey. It was built to give access to Budapest’s great Ganz Danubius shipyard. The shipyard was finally closed in 2000, after years of decline. These days, the bridge acts more like a rabbit hole from Orbán’s Hungary into Wonderland. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of people young and old cross to the leafy island to be entertained by music, theatre and dance, and to be challenged by debate, art and film – the joyous week-long celebration of free expression that is the Sziget Festival. Sziget was born from the ashes of Communism. In 1993, four years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Károly Gerendai was just 22. Thin and sporting a shock of long hair like a Hungarian David Gilmour, Gerendai had become interested in the music industry whilst in high school. As a student, he earned money fly-posting and as a tour manager. Later, he managed bands and worked for record labels. That year, he was in charge of Sziámi, one of the best-known alt-rock bands in the Hungarian underground scene. On the tour bus after a concert, he fell into conversation with Péter Müller, the band’s frontman. “We talked about how, after the political transition, the big youth events had disappeared,” Gerendai told Index. “Before the political transition of 1989–90, there were state-organised youth events, but we quickly realised that they mainly served as a way for the state to control young people. Although we could meet and have fun together, we always felt the state’s watchful eye on us.” State control extended beyond the audience and on to the stage. “In the music industry, strong state selection was also in place: there were supported, tolerated, and banned bands, so not everyone was allowed to be heard.” This is where the seed of something new was born. Post Iron Curtain Co-founder Károly Gerendai. Photo: Sziget Festival “We thought it would be great to organise a multi-day event where young people could be together – something like a holiday combined with concerts, various cultural programmes, and community activities,” he said. Gerendai and Müller approached Gábor Demszky, mayor of Budapest at the time and first of the post-Communist era, for help. “He supported the concept but told us to organise it ourselves,” Gerendai told Index. “Even though we had no experience with anything like this, we boldly jumped into the organisation.” This make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach was typical in post-Soviet eastern Europe. The mayor suggested three possible venues for the festival, one of which was Óbuda Island. 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The zone addresses pressing social issues that have an impact on the lives of young people, from their own perspective. “NGOs and organisations that play an important role in social and cultural life have also had their own dedicated space at Sziget since the early days,” said Gerendai. “These groups are worth introducing to the festival audience, and their work aligns with Sziget’s core values, such as sustainability, the protection of human rights, and acceptance.” Stepping back Magic Mirror at Sziget. Photo: Kristóf Hölvényi /Rockstar Photographers www.instagram.com/kristofholvenyi/ Eight years ago, after running 25 Sziget festivals, Gerendai decided to step back and sell his interest in the festival to promoter Superstruct, owned by American private equity company KKR. “I decided to pass the baton and from then on followed the festival only as a guest,” he said. 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Oppose Israel. Oppose genocide.” The festival’s robust stance in favour of LGBTQ+ rights has won it the European Festival Awards Take a Stand prize twice, in 2023 and 2026 (for 2025). The award recognises festivals that stand up for peaceful dialogue, humanism, tolerance, and mutual understanding – activities that do not necessarily chime with the profit imperative. Stepping forward again It is true, though, that since the Covid pandemic money has been a big problem for the Sziget festival. Like many other European music festivals, Sziget had struggled thanks to two years of cancellations, the spiralling cost of living, and sharply rising artist fees. The festival lost $5.6 million in 2023, and almost $12 million in 2024. In 2025, the company running the festival (without Gerendai) sent a letter to Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony calling for the agreement between the festival and the city, as the island’s landowner, to be terminated. The festival seemed to be doomed. But the return of a familiar figure saved it at the last minute – its co-founder, Gerendai. “The new owner decided that they no longer wished to finance the festival, which had found itself in a difficult situation in the post-pandemic years due to economic conditions and, in my view, certain conceptual decisions as well,” said Gerendai. “They offered that if I took Sziget back, we could continue organising it under my leadership. So it was either I return – or there would be no Sziget.” “It caused me several sleepless nights, since in the meantime I had been working on completely different things,” Gerendai told Index. “But in the end, I felt that a festival that has become a cultural institution in Hungary and is also significant on the international scene simply cannot end abruptly. Besides, this is my child – I couldn’t abandon it.” Superstruct has come under huge pressure from activists and artists since its acquisition by KKR in June 2024. KKR has significant investments in Israeli companies, including some operating in the West Bank. In May 2025, a number of artists pulled out of the UK’s Field Day festival because of its Superstruct ownership. The transfer of the licence from Superstruct back to Gerendai almost didn’t happen. Budapest City Council initially blocked the transfer, with councillors from Fidesz and Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party abstaining from the vote. However, Hungary’s Index newspaper reports that Magyar, reacting to negative sentiment from potential voters over the news that Sziget might fold, quickly arranged a meeting with Gerendai. On 30 October, Magyar posted a picture of himself and Gerendai on Facebook, announcing that the pair would meet again at the 2026 festival after agreeing on two amendments to the proposals: first, that the costs of using the island would be paid back to the city by 2030 rather than 2035, and second, that all Hungarians under the age of 25 would get discounted tickets to the festival – a potential vote-winner among this demographic. Gerendai himself won’t be drawn on his politics. The 2026 Sziget festival is now set to go ahead from 11 to 15 August 2026, featuring Florence + The Machine, Lewis Capaldi, Sombr, Twenty One Pilots, Biffy Clyro and Underworld as well as hundreds of others including Hungarian rapper Sisi on the line-up. Gerendai said, “Many large music festivals operate primarily as business ventures focused on who is performing. In recent years, Sziget had also started to move in this direction, but I believe a festival should stand for more than that. Cultural diversity must be emphasised, as well as a commitment to core values. Reaffirming this ambition can be the key to long-term success – and this is what we aim for in the future.” The future for music festivals remains uncertain but, for now, the legendary island of freedom looks safe back in Gerendai’s hands. READ MORE

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