In a country with so little press freedom, what were the challenges in ensuring Radio Erena had listeners?
“The government knows we exist and at first there was a huge campaign against us when we started broadcasting. Our challenge in starting Radio Erena was not money or equipment or even finding the studio. The biggest challenge was counteracting the governments claims that we were spies and the radio station was there to create disharmony in Eritrea. It was a huge scare campaign and we had to fight to show we were here for the people and not spies with the CIA. “We are the first independent radio in Eritirea. There are other media groups not associated with the government, but they are associated with the opposition and only report their side of the news. We are the first truly independent radio station of Eritrea. This was our second challenge because the people didnt know whose side we were on. We are not on anyones side. We only report the news. We had to explain this kind of reporting to our listeners. “Our third challenge was when the governmnet started imprisoning people who listen
