Those freed were Temesghen Abay of Radio Dimtsi Hafash’s Tigrinya-language service, Getachew Asfaha of Eri-TV’s Amharic-language service and Asmerom Berhe of Eri-TV’s Tigrinya-language service. Getachew Asfaha was freed on 16 February. The exact date of the release of Temesghen Abay and Asmerom Berhe is not known.

They were detained in the course of a wave of arrests of public media journalists launched on 12 November following the defection of several prominent journalists, which had particularly irked the government. They appear to have been suspected of staying in contact with the defectors or of planning to flee the country themselves

In all, nine state media journalists have been arrested and then released on bail, one after another. Since their release, they have been followed, their phones have been tapped, they have been forced to go back to work and they have been expressly forbidden to leave Asmara.