Position Paper 2: Digital Access

No one from Eritrea will see this paper.

Like I start most papers, I'm going to give you a little background on how I decided on what country to select for this paper.

So there I was, in the dead of night, playing MLB The Show 19, the latest installment in the PlayStation exclusive baseball series from Sony San Diego when I remembered I had to write this paper. "But what country will I pick," I mumbled, reading the syllabus. "I know, I'll pick somewhere boring, and random!" And thus, I once again used a random country generator and was given Eritrea, a country on the eastern border of Africa, just across the Red Sea from Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Little did I know that Eritrea has one of the most interesting digital access stories to tell of all the countries in the world.

"Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa, with its capital at Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands. The name Eritrea is based on the Greek name for the Red Sea, which was first adopted for Italian Eritrea in 1890."

So, the interesting thing about internet access in Eritrea is that the internet is under complete control of the government. Here are some fun statistics about Eritrean internet access.

• As few as 6% of Eritreans have a mobile phone and about 1% go online (source).
• Customers must pay at least $46 to get an active mobile subscription. Then, voice credits cost $3.65.
• Eritreans fulfilling compulsory national service cannot own a mobile phone.
• Dial-up home access costs $200 per month.
• There are 100 Internet cafes in the country – most have fewer than 10 computers.
• An hour of Internet cafe access costs $1.34 (or about 7 loaves of bread in Eritrian Nafkas).

*all currency listed in USD*

On May 15th, the Eritrean government shut down all social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat in preparation for protests on their Independence Day. This was rumored to have been to prevent messaging between possible activists. All internet access is blocked on mobile phones to begin with, so this made it very difficult for basic communication across the country (AfricaNews).

This is not the first time the government has limited the public's access, as they did it the year before in 2018, for similar reasons. That was also the last time a protest took place in the country, which was dispersed by gunfire.

There aren't many news sources that can be found on the Eritrean internet, but the primary news provider is government owned Eri-TV, which uploads all of their broadcasts on YouTube. Take what you will from that, but I wouldn't be inclined to believe everything that they say.

According to the World Factbook, there are about 506,000 subscriptions to mobile cellular, or about 9 subscription for every 100 inhabitants. All broadcast media is government controlled with private ownership being prohibited. There is one state owned television station and state owned radio stations which operate two networks. However, subscriptions and dishes to international broadcast media are permitted. Only about 70,000 people use the internet in Eritrea, or 1.2%.

According to the Press Freedom Index, only North Korea has less press freedom as Eritrea ranks 178th out of 179. You can find more on press freedom in Eritrea here. 

There is one news source coming from Eritrea that is not state owned, and it is the Eritrean Press. The owner, who is unknown but goes by the name 'J' recently did an interview with the BBC, which you can find here. He claims if anyone knew his name, he would be dead. The page has a large following, with lots of interaction among social media users.

I doubt anyone from Eritrea will read this paper but if you do, we're rooting for you!