As some of yoy kow, Terje and Mulatu delivered a report a few months back on the ethnification of Ethiopian journalism. That report has now gained the attention of the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism. The article is signed Benon Herbert Oluka, and is dated March 21, this year: “While Abiy’s efforts to mend fences with neighbour Eritrea won him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, the ethnic fault lines in his own country have grown deeper. Between 2018 and 2020, the country went through several violent episodes, including an attempted coup in June 2019 and a conflict between the federal and regional authorities in the Tigray region.”
As summarized by Reuters:
The report combines in-depth interviews with about 25 individuals in key positions in media houses spread out across Ethiopia and framing analysis on select stories produced by 10 outlets about eight crucial incidents in 2019. Here are its key findings:
- Ethnic belonging and identity politics are gaining significance as central frames of reference in the current Ethiopian media discourse. The report points to the tendency of journalists to frame issues in a way that aligns with their ethnic background.
- The data points towards a more pluralistic (and more polarised) media society. The authors say the polarisation is fuelled by ethno-nationalistic media of different origin and ownership, and by pan-Ethiopianist channels.
- The previous stronghold of the federal state media – public broadcasters like the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, the Ethiopian News Agency and the three newspapers published by the Ethiopian Press Agency – has been overtaken by a fragmented state media structure with the growing significance of regional mass media agencies. The government’s recent decision to open up the media space has seen the influence of the public broadcasters wane significantly.
- Journalists are starting to form alliances along regional and ethnic fault lines, as illustrated by the launch of the Amhara Journalists Association or the Tigray Journalists Association. They are highly inclined to use sources that support their own ideological interest and avoid quoting sources from other ethnicities which could balance the story.
- Various channels, especially the online platforms that were allowed to operate in the country following the liberalisation of the airwaves, practice a reporting style that mixes acknowledged objective standards for reporting news with the opinions of journalists and media owners. Many media practitioners are deeply concerned about this.