ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the 23-year period of developments in both foreign and domestic policies in Eritrea with a focus on media control and aims to give a general overview of the main pillars, as well as discontent and perspectives, of upholding authoritarian rule in this country, with a view to implications for regional security and development. The emergence of Eritrea as an independent state in 1993 attracted the attention of both scholars and policymakers, as it presented a good real-time opportunity to monitor the initial formation of a state in the post-Yalta–Potsdam system era. All authoritative international organizations that deal with human rights and media freedom have expressed concern not only about the current 'hunt on journalist dissidents', but on the socio-political situation in Eritrea overall: Not a single election has been held since the country gained independence, and today Eritrea is one of the world's most repressive and secretive states.