Abiy Ahmed
Transparency
### Transparency

In 2018, to expand the [free press in Ethiopia](/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Ethiopia "List of newspapers in Ethiopia"), Abiy invited exiled media outlets to return. One of the media outlets invited to return was [ESAT](/wiki/ESAT "ESAT") (which had called for the genocide of Ethiopian [Tigrayans](/wiki/Tigrayans "Tigrayans")). However, since assuming office in April 2018, Abiy himself had, as of March 2019, only given one press conference, on 25 August 2018 and around five months after he assumed office, where he answered questions from journalists.  he has not given another press conference where he has not refused to answer questions from journalists (rather than reading prepared statements).

According to the NGOs [Human Rights Watch](/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch "Human Rights Watch"), [Committee to Protect Journalists](/wiki/Committee_to_Protect_Journalists "Committee to Protect Journalists") and [Amnesty International](/wiki/Amnesty_International "Amnesty International"), Abiy's government has since mid 2019 been arresting Ethiopian journalists and closing media outlets (except for ESAT\-TV). From the international media outlets, his government has suspended the press license of [Reuters](/wiki/Reuters "Reuters")'s correspondent, and issued a warning letter to the correspondents of both [BBC](/wiki/BBC "BBC") and [Deutsche Welle](/wiki/Deutsche_Welle "Deutsche Welle") for what the government described as "violation of the rules of media broadcasting".


How many press conferences has Abiy given since assuming office?