She was a high school teacher until 2000, when she started working as a columnist for several local newspapers including the independent weekly newspaper Feteh. In 2010, she founded her own publishing house and became the editor in chief of her own monthly magazine called Change, both of which were closed. Alemu"s articles covered social and political affairs as well as poverty and gender issues.
In June 2011, she was arrested by Ethiopian authorities on charges of terrorism, for which she was convicted to 14 years of imprisonment and a fine of 33,000 birrs (United States dollar 1,850).
Her fiance, Sileshi Hagos also arrested from September - November 2011
In August 2012, an appeals court subsequently reduced the 14-year prison sentence to 5 years and dropped most of the terrorism charges against her. She was serving a five-year term at Kality prison.
Reeyot was released from Kaliti Prison on July 9, 2015 after serving four years.
In 2012, the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) bestowed a Courage in Journalism Award on Alemu in absentia for her “refusal to self-censor in a place where that practice in standard, and her unwillingness to apologize for truth-telling, even though contrition could win her freedom.” She has also won Hellman/Hammett press freedom prize. In May 2013, she was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to honor her exceptional courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression.
