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Befeqadu Hailu Techane is an Ethiopian writer, activist, and blogger. He is a cofounder of the renowned Zone 9 Bloggers group that were arrested in 2014 due to their blogging activities after being accused of inciting violence through writing. He has been the editor of various newspapers, and currently he is the executive director of CARD, a civil society organization he cofounded. His published novella titled Children and their Parents was a winner of Bill Burt Award for African Literature in 2012. His other awards for his participation in the Zone 9 Bloggers include the Committee to Protects Journalist's International Press Freedom Award, the Reporters Without Borders Award for Citizen Journalists, and the Hellman/Hammet Human Rights Award.