Throughout EPRDF rule, restrictions on freedom of speech has been commonplace and total. A Press Law approved by parliament in July 2008 added to the numerous restrictions placed on the activities of journalists in Ethiopia. It made journalists and editors potential accomplices in acts of terrorism if they published statements that the government decides amount to sedition. Independent newspapers were consequently shut down, journalists exiled, and critics muzzled.
Under OFC rule, everyone will enjoy freedom of opinion, thought, and expression and no one will be persecuted and prosecuted for exercising their constitutional right to free expression.