The Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), meeting in Vienna, Austria, on 12 October 2011, calls on the Eritrean authorities to immediately release Eritrean/Swedish journalist, author and playwright Dawit Isaak along with the other 16 journalists imprisoned without trial in the country, a statistic that makes Eritrea one of the world’s worst offenders for press freedom.

Mr Isaak, the in-absentia recipient of the 2011 WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom Award, has been held in detention for over 10 years. Despite numerous enquiries by media groups, human rights organistions, politicians and civil society activists, the whereabouts of Mr Isaak remain unknown. Fears continue to surround both his physical and mental health, with reports having surfaced of beatings, torture and solitary confinement compounding Eritrea’s already horrific prison conditions. The Board calls on the Eritrean authorities to provide reliable news of Mr Isaak’s state of health ahead of his eventual release.

Mr Isaak was arrested on 23 September 2001 for having published in the pages of Setit newspaper, the title that he co-founded, calls for reform that were addressed directly to President Isaias Afewerki. The Eritrean regime responded with a brutal crackdown against freedom of expression that continues to this day.

The Board of WAN-IFRA reminds President Afewerki that his regime will never succeed in silencing critical opinion and that the international spotlight will remain on Eritrea so long as the repression of human rights continues. It calls on him to make a positive step towards greater freedom of expression by releasing Dawit Isaak and all imprisoned journalists, whose commitment to reforming the country should be celebrated, not punished.