The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Hawassa Town First Instance Court sentenced Asfaw Berhanu, former stringer of Reporter, to a two-year-and-nine-month prison term on Wednesday December 25 for spreading false rumors.

Asfaw was charged on two counts. The first relates to a news report that was published on the front page of the September 4, 2013 issue of the Amharic-language Reporter newspaper stating that three deputy presidents of the regional state were removed from their posts while the second accuses him of failing to return government properties that came into his possession while he was working in the regional state’s Trade and Industry Bureau including a laptop, a field bag and a calculator.

Asfaw was convicted of the first charge only. He was acquitted of the second.

On October 10, 2013 Melaku Demissie, the Managing Editor of the Amharic Reporter, was arrested and taken to Hawassa for questioning in connection with the aforementioned news report and released the day after without being charged.

The news report was retracted on the next edition of the newspaper.

It was also reported that the Hawassa stringer, who wrote the erroneous story which caused this sentence faced administrative measures after the editorial team discovered that the story was in fact wrong.