| Solomon Abera | |
| Birth Name: | Tsegakiristos |
| Birth Date: | 1968 |
| Death Date: | December 2011 |
| Occupation: | presenter, textile worker |
| Language: | Tigrigna, Amharic & English |
| Nationality: | Eritrean |
| Spouse: | Melkrist |
| Children: | Abeynera & Abeyneru |
Solomon Abera Gebremichae (1968–2011) was a press freedom advocate, and detractor of the Afewerki government. He died of cancer in December 2011.
Before becoming a journalist Abera was a textile worker. Following the Eritrean War of Independence in 1991 he worked for the Ministry of Information in the new Eritrean government.[1] On September 18, 2001, Abera was the news presenter on state-controlled television that announced the end of Eritrea's independent press and the rounding up of leading independent newspaper editors and ruling-party dissidents. In response to mounting government intimidation and censorship Abera fled Eritrea in 2005.[2]
Following his departure from Eritrea he became an active critic of the Afewerki government on numerous diaspora websites and an advocate for press freedom.[2] In 2009 he began working with Free Press Unlimited providing several trainings and field missions.[3] In 2011 Abera was among a group of exiled Eritrean journalists who met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.[2] [4]
Abera's detractors have accused him of being an informant and collaborator with the Ethiopian government, and the Derg regime in particular, during the Eritrean War of Independence.[1]