THE U.S. has urged Ethiopia stop using its controversial anti-terror law to jail journalists.

The country’s National Security Council’s spokesman Ned Price did not name the reporters the United States is concerned for, but he spoke amid a harsh Ethiopian crackdown on dissent. “We are deeply concerned by the recent arrests of other journalists in Ethiopia,” Price said. “We urge the Ethiopian Government to release journalists and all others imprisoned for exercising their right to free expression,” he added.

The White House urged Ethiopia “to refrain from using its Anti-Terrorism Proclamation as a mechanism to silence dissent and to protect the rights of journalists, bloggers, and dissidents to write and speak freely as voices of a diverse nation.”

On December 19, this year, Human Rights Watch reported that Ethiopian security forces had killed at least 75 demonstrators with live fire during weeks of regional anti-government protests.

U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the seat of the African Union, in July this year. Washington is seen as close ally to the government, headed by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

But, while admiring Ethiopia’s strong economic growth and welcoming its role in peacekeeping missions, Washington had been cautious not to endorse its rights record.