human rights defender

Eyob Shimelis

© Eyob Shimelis Facebook page

HRD's Gender

Man

Type of HRD

  • Journalist/Blogger

HRD's thematic area of engagement

  • Civil and political rights
  • Fight against corruption
  • Fight against impunity

HRD's geographical origin

Semi urban

Current Status

Released on bail

HRD's bio and work

Eyob is a journalist who graduated from Jimma University in Ethiopia. He is the founder of a social media page called "Sidama News", which has 109k followers on TikTok. He reports on corruption issues from the Sidama Regional State, one of the regions in Ethiopia.

Detained since

Dec 1, 2025

Date of release

Dec 25, 2025

Charge(s)

  • Defamation
  • Spreading fake news

Latitude: 7.048612663451394

Longitude: 38.497207632403445

Geolocation of detention

Country or area of detention

Region of detention

  • Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa

Location of detention - City/Town

Hawassa City, Sidama Regional State, Ethiopia

Recent case update / evolution

Journalist Eyob was released on bail after 25 days of detention by the regional police.

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