Meet Abraham Zere. Abraham recently defended his dissertation, and is a champion for freedom of expression. Zere left his home nation of Eritrea when the government banned the free press, and came to Athens, Ohio in 2012 but the journey wasn’t easy. “It was a long and tedious journey where I had to lobby for four months and finally pull influential contacts to be allowed to leave the country,” Abraham recounted. Zere was involved with the private press from an early age, but a year after he enrolled in the department of journalism, the private media was banned. Eritrea is last on the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Abraham continued working, but his colleagues and even his mentor were arrested and jailed. Now living in Athens, Zere continues to advocate for freedom of expression. Abraham is a founder of PEN Eritrea, an organization that promotes literature and freedom of expression, and he served as executive director until July 2020. When asked how we can sup...