# Eritrea: independent press closed and journalists jailed without trial

Published 2026-09-23. Last reviewed 2026-09-22. 3 sources.

Status: in effect, as of 2026-09-22.

What we don't know: The sources reviewed do not confirm whether Dawit Isaac or the other detained journalists are alive.

Eritrea's government closed every private newspaper and jailed at least nineteen journalists, including Dawit Isaac of the paper Setit, without charge or trial in September 2001, after suspending the constitution. Several have never been publicly accounted for since.[1][2][3]

- Country: [Eritrea](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/er)
- Where: ER
- Level of government: National
- Tactic: Detention and violence
- Stage: Eliminate (ladder: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/detention_and_violence#stage-eliminate)
- Ladder note: Eritrea jailed at least nineteen journalists without charge, trial or public acknowledgment of their fate after suspending its constitution, and has not accounted for several of them in over two decades; no United States detention in the record has approached that duration.
- Head of government at the time: [Isaias Afwerki](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/isaias-afwerki)
- Issue of the day: Not stated in the sources reviewed.
- Outcome: Ongoing. As of the 2010 source reviewed, none of the journalists detained in 2001 had been charged, tried or publicly accounted for.
- Era: The 2000s

## What happened

On September 18, 2001, as international attention was focused on the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings in the United States, Eritrea's government under President Isaias Afwerki closed the country's private newspapers and arrested their editors and reporters, including Dawit Isaac, a Swedish-Eritrean journalist and co-owner of the newspaper Setit. At least nineteen journalists were detained in the restrictions that followed, along with a group of senior political dissidents. None of them has ever been publicly charged with a crime or given a trial. Authorities have refused to disclose the detainees' locations or confirm whether they remain alive, a practice that international law treats as enforced disappearance. Isaac was reported to have been held for 3,127 days as of a 2010 accounting, with no public update on his status since.[1][2][3]

Unresolved; the detainees' fates remain unconfirmed as of the source reviewed.[1][2][3]

## What reason was given

Not stated in the sources reviewed.[1][2][3]

## What changed for reporting

The closures ended Eritrea's independent press entirely, and the indefinite, uncharged detention of its journalists has kept the country at the bottom of international press freedom rankings for more than two decades.[1][2][3]

## Timeline

- 2001-09-18: Eritrea: independent press closed and journalists jailed without trial

## Who acted

| Name | Role in this incident | Office at the time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Isaias Afwerki](https://thewaronnews.com/actors/isaias-afwerki) | other | President of Eritrea |

## Outlets and journalists

| Name | Kind | Relation |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Setit](https://thewaronnews.com/outlets/setit) | outlet | affected |
| [Dawit Isaac](https://thewaronnews.com/journalists/dawit-isaac) | journalist, Setit | affected |

## Sources

1. Dawit Isaac: jailed 3,127 days in Eritrea without trial. https://cpj.org/2010/04/dawit-isaac-jailed-3127-days-in-eritrea-without-tr/ (Committee to Protect Journalists, 2010-04-16).
2. 'If we don't give them a voice, no one will': Eritrea's forgotten journalists, still jailed after 14 years. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/eritrea-forgotten-journalists-jailed-pen-international-press-freedom (The Guardian, 2015-08-19).
3. Eritrea's G-15 political prisoners: 'I don't even know if my ...'. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx1l6762jeq4o (BBC, 2026).

## Claims cited

[1] Description of Isaac's legal status after years in detention. Quote: "He has never been publicly charged with a crime or been given a trial." Source: Committee to Protect Journalists, 2010-04-16. Dawit Isaac: jailed 3,127 days in Eritrea without trial. https://cpj.org/2010/04/dawit-isaac-jailed-3127-days-in-eritrea-without-tr/ Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/670, checked 2026-09-22.

[2] CPJ's description of when the detentions began. Quote: "Many were first detained in 2001, when the government cracked down on political dissent and the independent media." Source: Committee to Protect Journalists, 2010-04-16. Dawit Isaac: jailed 3,127 days in Eritrea without trial. https://cpj.org/2010/04/dawit-isaac-jailed-3127-days-in-eritrea-without-tr/ Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/671, checked 2026-09-22.

[3] Description tying the closures to the constitution's suspension. Quote: "a document President Isaias Afeworki indefinitely suspended in September 2001 after shutting down private newspapers like Isaac's Setit" Source: Committee to Protect Journalists, 2010-04-16. Dawit Isaac: jailed 3,127 days in Eritrea without trial. https://cpj.org/2010/04/dawit-isaac-jailed-3127-days-in-eritrea-without-tr/ Claim: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/672, checked 2026-09-22.

Source page: https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2001-eritrea-jails-journalists-indefinitely. The War On News, CC BY 4.0.