Radio Erena (“Our Eritrea”), a Tigrinya and Arabic languages station broadcasting by satellite to Eritrea, began operating on June 15, 2009, in Paris, five days ahead of World Refugee Day. The result of an initiative by Eritrean journalists based abroad and supported by Reporters Without Borders, the station is offering freely-reported, independent news and information to Eritreans in Eritrea.

Independent of any political organisation or government, Radio Erena is offering news, cultural programmes, music and entertainment. A network of contributors based around the world is providing the Paris-based staff with Tigrinya and Arabic languages programmes that are broadcast via NileSat.

Eritreans can tune into Radio Erena on the 11678 Mhz frequency with vertical polarisation (SR 27500, FEC 3/4).

Eritrea has had no free press since September 2001, when the few Asmara-based independent newspapers were closed down and their publishers and editors were arrested as part of a wave of round-ups ordered by President Issaias Afeworki.

Since then, the only news available to Eritreans in their national language has been provided by the state media – Eri-TV, Radio Dimtsi Hafash and the government daily Hadas Eritrea – which are all closely supervised by the information ministry.

Africa’s biggest prison for journalists, Eritrea has for the past two years been ranked last in the Reporters Without Borders 2024 index that measures the degree of respect for press freedom.

Contact

Press
You can contact Radio Erena’s newsroom by email: newsroom [a] erena (.) org

Public
If you are interested in finding out more about Radio Erena or supporting our project, please send an email to: contact [a] erena (.) org

Thank you for your interest in Radio Erena!