Earlier, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing jamming equipment, but there had been no formal decision to block the US station.

The Amharic Service has experienced interference since late February.
Mr Meles also compared the VOA's transmissions to broadcasts in Rwanda in the mid-1990s that incited genocide.

"We have for some time now been trying to beef up our capacity to deal with this, including... jamming," Mr Meles replied

In a statement, VOA director Danforth Austin said that any comparison of VOA programming to Rwandan broadcasts inciting genocide in the 1990s was "incorrect and unfortunate".
"The VOA deplores jamming as a form of media censorship wherever it may occur," he said, adding that the station's Amharic Service was required by law to provide accurate and objective information.

The VOA and other foreign media organizations say broadcasts in Amharic - the country's most widely spoken language - have been jammed around elections in the past.

According to 2nd August 2010 message from VOA.

Greetings from Voice of America!

Over recent months we’ve appreciated hearing from you about our Horn of Africa broadcasts to our Ethiopian and Eritrean audiences. For 28 years Voice of America has broadcast uncensored news to both countries, but that service has been recently interrupted by the Ethiopian government. And they have blocked access to our Horn of Africa web site for all who live in Ethiopia.

We value your views and during a crucial time in Ethiopian domestic affairs, we wanted to offer you by e-mail a new way to receive our news and feature programs.

Our broadcasters continue to work diligently to reach many parts of the world with news in Amharic, Afaan Oromoo and Tigrigna, but most listeners in Ethiopia cannot get that news now.

So, we invite you to receive the Horn of Africa news Monday through Friday.

You can subscribe at http://www1.voanews.com/amharic/email/

If you cannot access our site, click on http://www.melkamzena.com. You will be able to hear a recent broadcast in any of our three languages. Or, click on “newsletter” and enter your e-mail address and Monday through Friday you’ll receive links to our top stories of the day about Ethiopia.

Your subscription to our Horn newsletter is one of many ways VOA is reaching out to our loyal listeners during this communications crisis.

We invite you to forward this e-mail to anyone in Ethiopia or anywhere else in the world who would like to receive our Horn of Africa newsletter.