Understanding Ethiopia’s Hate Speech Law, Protecting Freedom of Expression

On March 2020, the Ethiopian House of Peoples’ Representatives adopted the controversial Hate Speech and Disinformation Prevention and Suppression Proclamation No 1185/2020. The law emerged in the backdrop of a string of deadly inter-ethnic clashes across the country, which the government was quick to link to viral speech and disinformation disseminated through broadcasting, social and print media.