Fighting the ghosts of the Ethiopian
private press
6 January, 2010 | By Hindessa Abdul
The Ethiopian private press is in the limelight again. As part of the
Prime Minister’s threat not to repeat what happened in 2005, a huge
anti press campaign is well underway, resulting in countless interviews.
The government is set to hit hard to any opposition in its way before
the inconsequential elections slated for May of this year. The current
campaign is a prelude to the subsequent measures to be taken if anyone
wants to challenge the status quo.
While there is almost no private press in the country that could in any
way challenge the authorities at Menelik Palace, the government seems
to be haunted by some ghosts. Otherwise the onslaught shouldn’t have
been necessary at all.
Tell me lies
day to day lies the station fabricates, it may sound not a big deal.
However, the record should be set straight. That was a demonstration
against a couple of magazines who had pornographic content, the most
important of them being Enkoy. That’s all about it! It was never
against the private press. That was the reason why the protest was
attended exclusively by women. And it has to be added that the
demonstration was actually organized by the new kids in the palace as
they thought it would help boost their moral stature by the general
public. Alas, it was so amateurish that some of the pregnant women
who took part in the protest carried slogans that say”We don’t want
sex” (wesib anfelgim). That slogan served a raw material for many a
cartoon by the private newspapers at the time.
Another repeated lie in the campaign was the narrators’ quotation of
headlines after headlines from the private press. In almost all those
cases the headlines are quotes of individuals than the words of the
publishers. The quotes are clear for everyone to see.
To lend credibility to the propaganda, ETV persists on sound bites of
two academicians from school of journalism at Addis Ababa
University. One of them later on complained on the weekly Addis
Admass saying his views had been distorted and doctored to fit the
mold.
The other one was rather vigorous in attacking the media practitioners
of the private press. He said most wrote their stories smoking Shisha.
He labels them “extremists”. As if that was not enough, the assistant
professor of journalism makes a sweeping statement saying the private
press in Ethiopia is on a “destructive course” The president of the
Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association was out to condemn
everything that has the word private. He had no kind words to the
journalists he was supposed to defend. He was so angry by the private
press that he had to cross the border to Kenya to make his point. He
accuses the Kenyan media of fomenting violence during that country’s
2007 elections. He doesn’t cite any study or publication to substantiate
his hearsay. For the record, the Kenyan media is the most vibrant press
in the African continent. It is the real fourth branch of the Kenyan
government. The Daily Nation and The Standard are the engines on
which the politics of the east African country thrive. It will take ages to
come anywhere close to that country’s media.
Of soldiers and captives
ETV accuses some of the private press publishers as being former
soldiers. What they forgot was two of the people who were
interviewed to justify the government’s assumptions were also soldiers
during that same Dergue regime: one was an airborne the other one
being a captain. Weren’t they hurting the feelings of their own
collaborators? Don’t they know the Oromo Peoples Democratic
Organization (OPDO) leaders beginning from the current mayor of
Addis Ababa, Mr Kuma Demeksa were all soldiers who were captured
by Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) and Tigrean People
Liberation Front (TPLF).
From Eritrea with love
In its desperate attempt to discredit the private press, the program
touches upon the Eritrean TV. Was that supposed to compare the
Ethiopian private press to the Eritrean government media? In that case
it is lame. Because TPLF was a creation of EPLF. And the latter took it
upon themselves to train their gullible disciples everything they know.
Should we continue talking about similarities?
The beef with VOA
Then the producers turn to the Voice of America. They use post 2005
footages to show us how the public was angry at the Washington D.C.
based media. The journalists at VOA are accused of working for
Sertoader which was the organ of the Workers Party of Ethiopia
(WPE) during the Dergue regime. It is difficult to say which VOA
journalist was the target of the attack. Certainly, VOA has a shiny
history when it comes to fighting totalitarianism. During the 70s and
80s, it, along with Radio Free Europe, was instrumental in bringing
down the Iron Curtain. They played a significant role in liberating
Eastern Europe from the shackles of Marxism.
VOA and Deutsche Welle have been the most trusted sources of
information in Ethiopia. As most of us recall, having locked up the
private media journalists and closing the publications, the government
tried to jam those broadcasters in vain. Then one of the reporters of
VOA, Mr Meleskachew Amha, was beaten up. That didn’t change
anything. Then the authorities started to force the public to sign a
petition which was supposed to be delivered to the respective
embassies. When all that proved to be an exercise in futility, five
journalists of the VOA were charged with genocide. Funny enough,
some of those haven’t been to Ethiopia in two decades. The guys at
Arat Kilo had no choice but to drop the charges.
Fairy tales of the Economy
Then comes ETV’s favorite article from the Economist Intelligence
Unit, which predicts Ethiopia’s will be the fifth fastest growing
economy in the world. If that is the case, we will all be happy even
knowing whose pocket will grow fat with that figure. Fortunately most
of us are under no illusion how figures translate into the actual injera on
the table. Aren’t we growing 10 to 12% every year! That mere
PREDICTION was passed to all Ethiopian embassies worldwide by the
ministry of foreign affairs. The diplomatic missions were ordered to
discuss the issue in all available media. ETV repeatedly uses this
information to brag about the economic performance of the
government. By the way four months earlier that same magazine said:”
Mr Meles “with a dismal human rights record who is intolerant of
dissent,” it went on to say” sprinkles spies through the university to
intimidate and control the students”. The Economist August 13, 2009.
Ethiopian embassies were not ordered to discuss that.
The “gutter press”
What is surprising is the private press with all its shortcomings had a
tremendous impact in shaping up public opinion in the country. Some
private newspapers in their two years existence have done more than
what government papers failed to do in seven decades. The
government was decidedly against the private press from the outset.
The Prime Minister called it”gutter press”, and did all in his power to
suppress it. The country was always listed as the most dangerous
place in the world to practice journalism. Even after closing all the
private press, Ethiopia recently was listed by Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) as the second most dangerous country in Africa to be
a journalist. The suppression doesn’t end there. Ethiopia is also famous
for blocking websites. All major news websites are not accessible. The
ruling party didn’t care to improve the abysmal 0.2% internet
penetration rate which is the lowest on planet earth. But with a little
help from the Chinese, they managed to restrict access to the Internet.
All the news that’s fit to print
Before concluding this write-up, it is important to mention samples of
the news that ETV fabricates.
* Prime Minister Meles had a two hour discussion with President Bill
Clinton at the White House when the truth was revealed to be a 20
minutes affaire.
* In 2002 the longest serving foreign minister in the history of the
country used ETV to tell the public that Badme has been awarded to
Ethiopia by the International Boundary Commission.
* General Hayelom was martyred (tesewa). Everybody knows
martyrdom is for those who give their lives for altruistic causes. Do
we need to mention how he died? God rest his soul in peace!
* Mothers expressed joy over the detention conditions of their children
in the Ziway prison following election related protests in 2005.
* Technical glitches at the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
(ETC) caused the interruption of text messaging by phone. It forgot to
tell us how it had happened days after the elections and why it took the
engineers at ETC three years to fix it. That”glitch” is so nasty that it is
still preventing us from accessing Ethiopian news websites from
Internet cafes in Addis.
* That is a TV used for displaying weapons from the government
armory when they want to lockup opposition politicians accusing them
of coup de’tat.
But that list makes for several books.
He who lives in a glass house
Those who live in a glass house should know better not to throw
stones. When the ruling clique accuse others of telling lies that is
travesty at its peak. This article is not a call for the revolutionary
democrats to stop lying. They cannot do that. Lie is the foundation of
the system. Without it the system will fall apart. But when they go out
of their way to preach about truth and ethics, they pass what the dear
leader calls the “red line”. That is where it hurts.
In a recently held press conference the Prime Minister was asked about
his views on the program. He said while he didn’t watch the”
documentary”, people told him that it was a very good one. Remember
Sebhat Nega’s interview to the VOA about anti terrorism law in
Ethiopia. The Member of Parliament said he didn’t read the draft but
people told him it was a good one. It makes sense. Who in their right
mind waste their time watching or reading trashes, when it can better
be spent enjoying the booty.
Courtesy
private press
6 January, 2010 | By Hindessa Abdul
The Ethiopian private press is in the limelight again. As part of the
Prime Minister’s threat not to repeat what happened in 2005, a huge
anti press campaign is well underway, resulting in countless interviews.
The government is set to hit hard to any opposition in its way before
the inconsequential elections slated for May of this year. The current
campaign is a prelude to the subsequent measures to be taken if anyone
wants to challenge the status quo.
While there is almost no private press in the country that could in any
way challenge the authorities at Menelik Palace, the government seems
to be haunted by some ghosts. Otherwise the onslaught shouldn’t have
been necessary at all.
Tell me lies
- The “documentary”, as ETV likes
to call it, is full of fabrications and
lies in the best tradition of
revolutionary democrats. Some of
the lies are supported by real
footages with a distorted narration
of the fact, one of them being a
public protest that took place in
1994. The producers of the
program unashamedly tell us it was
day to day lies the station fabricates, it may sound not a big deal.
However, the record should be set straight. That was a demonstration
against a couple of magazines who had pornographic content, the most
important of them being Enkoy. That’s all about it! It was never
against the private press. That was the reason why the protest was
attended exclusively by women. And it has to be added that the
demonstration was actually organized by the new kids in the palace as
they thought it would help boost their moral stature by the general
public. Alas, it was so amateurish that some of the pregnant women
who took part in the protest carried slogans that say”We don’t want
sex” (wesib anfelgim). That slogan served a raw material for many a
cartoon by the private newspapers at the time.
Another repeated lie in the campaign was the narrators’ quotation of
headlines after headlines from the private press. In almost all those
cases the headlines are quotes of individuals than the words of the
publishers. The quotes are clear for everyone to see.
To lend credibility to the propaganda, ETV persists on sound bites of
two academicians from school of journalism at Addis Ababa
University. One of them later on complained on the weekly Addis
Admass saying his views had been distorted and doctored to fit the
mold.
The other one was rather vigorous in attacking the media practitioners
of the private press. He said most wrote their stories smoking Shisha.
He labels them “extremists”. As if that was not enough, the assistant
professor of journalism makes a sweeping statement saying the private
press in Ethiopia is on a “destructive course” The president of the
Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association was out to condemn
everything that has the word private. He had no kind words to the
journalists he was supposed to defend. He was so angry by the private
press that he had to cross the border to Kenya to make his point. He
accuses the Kenyan media of fomenting violence during that country’s
2007 elections. He doesn’t cite any study or publication to substantiate
his hearsay. For the record, the Kenyan media is the most vibrant press
in the African continent. It is the real fourth branch of the Kenyan
government. The Daily Nation and The Standard are the engines on
which the politics of the east African country thrive. It will take ages to
come anywhere close to that country’s media.
Of soldiers and captives
ETV accuses some of the private press publishers as being former
soldiers. What they forgot was two of the people who were
interviewed to justify the government’s assumptions were also soldiers
during that same Dergue regime: one was an airborne the other one
being a captain. Weren’t they hurting the feelings of their own
collaborators? Don’t they know the Oromo Peoples Democratic
Organization (OPDO) leaders beginning from the current mayor of
Addis Ababa, Mr Kuma Demeksa were all soldiers who were captured
by Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) and Tigrean People
Liberation Front (TPLF).
From Eritrea with love
In its desperate attempt to discredit the private press, the program
touches upon the Eritrean TV. Was that supposed to compare the
Ethiopian private press to the Eritrean government media? In that case
it is lame. Because TPLF was a creation of EPLF. And the latter took it
upon themselves to train their gullible disciples everything they know.
Should we continue talking about similarities?
The beef with VOA
Then the producers turn to the Voice of America. They use post 2005
footages to show us how the public was angry at the Washington D.C.
based media. The journalists at VOA are accused of working for
Sertoader which was the organ of the Workers Party of Ethiopia
(WPE) during the Dergue regime. It is difficult to say which VOA
journalist was the target of the attack. Certainly, VOA has a shiny
history when it comes to fighting totalitarianism. During the 70s and
80s, it, along with Radio Free Europe, was instrumental in bringing
down the Iron Curtain. They played a significant role in liberating
Eastern Europe from the shackles of Marxism.
VOA and Deutsche Welle have been the most trusted sources of
information in Ethiopia. As most of us recall, having locked up the
private media journalists and closing the publications, the government
tried to jam those broadcasters in vain. Then one of the reporters of
VOA, Mr Meleskachew Amha, was beaten up. That didn’t change
anything. Then the authorities started to force the public to sign a
petition which was supposed to be delivered to the respective
embassies. When all that proved to be an exercise in futility, five
journalists of the VOA were charged with genocide. Funny enough,
some of those haven’t been to Ethiopia in two decades. The guys at
Arat Kilo had no choice but to drop the charges.
Fairy tales of the Economy
Then comes ETV’s favorite article from the Economist Intelligence
Unit, which predicts Ethiopia’s will be the fifth fastest growing
economy in the world. If that is the case, we will all be happy even
knowing whose pocket will grow fat with that figure. Fortunately most
of us are under no illusion how figures translate into the actual injera on
the table. Aren’t we growing 10 to 12% every year! That mere
PREDICTION was passed to all Ethiopian embassies worldwide by the
ministry of foreign affairs. The diplomatic missions were ordered to
discuss the issue in all available media. ETV repeatedly uses this
information to brag about the economic performance of the
government. By the way four months earlier that same magazine said:”
Mr Meles “with a dismal human rights record who is intolerant of
dissent,” it went on to say” sprinkles spies through the university to
intimidate and control the students”. The Economist August 13, 2009.
Ethiopian embassies were not ordered to discuss that.
The “gutter press”
What is surprising is the private press with all its shortcomings had a
tremendous impact in shaping up public opinion in the country. Some
private newspapers in their two years existence have done more than
what government papers failed to do in seven decades. The
government was decidedly against the private press from the outset.
The Prime Minister called it”gutter press”, and did all in his power to
suppress it. The country was always listed as the most dangerous
place in the world to practice journalism. Even after closing all the
private press, Ethiopia recently was listed by Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) as the second most dangerous country in Africa to be
a journalist. The suppression doesn’t end there. Ethiopia is also famous
for blocking websites. All major news websites are not accessible. The
ruling party didn’t care to improve the abysmal 0.2% internet
penetration rate which is the lowest on planet earth. But with a little
help from the Chinese, they managed to restrict access to the Internet.
All the news that’s fit to print
Before concluding this write-up, it is important to mention samples of
the news that ETV fabricates.
* Prime Minister Meles had a two hour discussion with President Bill
Clinton at the White House when the truth was revealed to be a 20
minutes affaire.
* In 2002 the longest serving foreign minister in the history of the
country used ETV to tell the public that Badme has been awarded to
Ethiopia by the International Boundary Commission.
* General Hayelom was martyred (tesewa). Everybody knows
martyrdom is for those who give their lives for altruistic causes. Do
we need to mention how he died? God rest his soul in peace!
* Mothers expressed joy over the detention conditions of their children
in the Ziway prison following election related protests in 2005.
* Technical glitches at the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
(ETC) caused the interruption of text messaging by phone. It forgot to
tell us how it had happened days after the elections and why it took the
engineers at ETC three years to fix it. That”glitch” is so nasty that it is
still preventing us from accessing Ethiopian news websites from
Internet cafes in Addis.
* That is a TV used for displaying weapons from the government
armory when they want to lockup opposition politicians accusing them
of coup de’tat.
But that list makes for several books.
He who lives in a glass house
Those who live in a glass house should know better not to throw
stones. When the ruling clique accuse others of telling lies that is
travesty at its peak. This article is not a call for the revolutionary
democrats to stop lying. They cannot do that. Lie is the foundation of
the system. Without it the system will fall apart. But when they go out
of their way to preach about truth and ethics, they pass what the dear
leader calls the “red line”. That is where it hurts.
In a recently held press conference the Prime Minister was asked about
his views on the program. He said while he didn’t watch the”
documentary”, people told him that it was a very good one. Remember
Sebhat Nega’s interview to the VOA about anti terrorism law in
Ethiopia. The Member of Parliament said he didn’t read the draft but
people told him it was a good one. It makes sense. Who in their right
mind waste their time watching or reading trashes, when it can better
be spent enjoying the booty.
Courtesy
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Tamerat Negera,
Editor-in-chief, Addis Neger (አዲስ ነገር)
Editor-in-chief, Addis Neger (አዲስ ነገር)
