English PDF - East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders ...

Conference Report: Resources and Proceedings 13military regime in May 1991, the private media has had better environment to flourish and givethe people alternative sources of information. However, infringement on media freedom occurredfor instance by publishers being fined big sums of money and thereby being forced out ofbusiness. Several journalists were detained for different length of period.The situation of the media in the last 15 years can be characterized by a shadow of suspicionbetween the Government and the private press where the Government categorizes the majority ofthe private media, particularly print and electronic [the online news sites and foreign based radiostations prior to and in the aftermath of May 2005 national election] as more of politicaladvocates within the opposition camp using the freedom of speech as a medium of conspiracyand incitement to topple the status quo. However, it has to be pointed out that these mediaprovide a wide range of view to their readership and help the Ethiopian people to receivebalanced information. Often they are the ones that expose the human rights violation of the state’ssecurity forces.The Prime Minister himself said in a recent interview with local and international journalists;“The private press is in a ghetto.” He accused the private press in the country not to be free ofpolitical affiliations, and being consumed by undisguised bias. The cloud of mistrust that reignsbetween the Government and private media has contributed to under-performance of thejournalistic profession. Practicing self censorship is likely to have occurred.The private press blames the Government for purposeful crippling of media outlets outside of itsdirect control while the Government accuses the private media of being a propaganda toolworking behind opposition political forces. Subsequently, a number of journalists wereimprisoned following the October 2005 post-election crisis facing charges of conspiracy to topplea constitutionally established Government through illegal acts. To date many of them remainimprisoned on charges of treason.In a recent workshop organized at Hilton Hotel by the Graduate School of Journalism, AddisAbaba University, and the European Union as part of celebrations of the European Day, BereketSimon, Public Relations Advisor to the Prime Minister, stated that relations between privatemedia and Government had been marred owing to misconduct on the part of the private presswhich eroded the Government’s trust on their impartiality and professional capacity. He promiseda better and workable atmosphere for the private press and to speed up preparations for privateownership of TV and radio stations. Though the Government has finally shown some relaxationon granting permits to private TV and radio stations, and invites private media to work together, asense of resentment appears to be the dominant force in the Government’s approach towards theprivate media.The current state and recent history of media freedomCurrently, private media is more appropriately defined as print media because no privately ownedelectronic media [TV, radio, website] as alternative source of information exists in Ethiopia. Onlyone state-owned TV station operates covering around half the land size of the country. And a solestate owned radio station and one other station known to be affiliated with the governing partyprovide radio service. More than a dozen newspapers were closed down or “forced to haltpublication following the political turmoil” following the October 2005 violence. Four of them