VOA detected that, beginning around March 29, the Ethiopian government began jamming the Horn of Africa Service’s shortwave broadcasts in Afan Oromo and Tigrigna. The Service’s other broadcast language, Amharic, has been jammed since the last week in February.

VOA issued an open letter to its Ethiopian listeners stating its opposition “to all efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information.”

VOA has taken new steps to ensure access to the Ethiopian audience, including an electronic newsletter and new satellite audio transmissions and new shortwave frequencies. "We are addressing our audience in new ways that did not exist when we began our shortwave radio broadcasts to Ethiopia 29 years ago," VOA Director Dan Austin said.