BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
Since mid-2018, Ethiopia has been undergoing series of reform process. Among others, the media is one of the sector which the reform touched upon. Then the media was expected to play pivotal role in fighting maladministration, criticize and shape the countries policy and direction. While there are some observable changes in the country’s political landscape that has meaningful impact on the operation of the media, whether the media has played its expected role in the country’s overall political and social activities needs in depth scrutiny. Especially at a time when the country has faced internal political upheaval and external pressure that puts the country in a trying period, the media is likely to play a significant role in safeguarding the country from the looming threat. Ethiopian Press Agency has recently interviewed Menychle Meseret on issues related with the current political situation of the nation along with the role of the media, the ongoing media reform process and securing countries national interest. Menychle is Assistant Professor of Global Journalism in the University of Gondar. He basically conducts media research and lectures journalism courses for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the university. Have a nice read:
How do you explain the relationship / interaction between the media and the political system of the country so far? What do you think are the achievements and challenges?
Well. I have been keen to learn about the relationship between the media and political system in emerging democracies over the past few years. So, I can tell you some of my research on Ethiopian media on this very issue. Most scholars in the media and politics agree on the issue that the two areas are unavoidably linked. Obviously, media can be seen as a connective tissue of democracy. This shows media’s important role in the political process of the nation.
In this regard, the relationship between the media and political system has been chaotic in Ethiopia. I would like to explain this by mentioning a few examples of the recent past Ethiopia. If you see the development of media since the coming to power of EPRDF coalition party in 1991, one can witness a precarious media environment. There was a clear desire of the government to use the media as its mouthpiece. When some journalists write something that opposes the incumbent, they have been arbitrarily jailed. On top of this, a clear division of pro- government and pro-opposition media camps were visible. While pro-government media outlets support government agenda, others would officially oppose government policies.
There was even a tendency by government authorities to see critical media organizations as threats to the government. And, broadcast media had been under strict government control. We didn’t have a private television until the year 2017. This is because the ruling party at the time used to think that it would be dangerous to grant permission license to any party other than the government. These things show us that clearly there was not a symbiotic relationship between media and politics in Ethiopia.
This situation has been relatively improved since 2018. Although there are bumps here and there, today the government does not seem to boldly consider media organizations as threats. There are no websites blocked today by the government. Of course, some journalists are jailed even today for different reasons. But it is difficult to compare the current situation with the earlier authoritarian period of EPRDF.
Can you tell us about the role of the successive regimes especially since 1991 in promoting the role of the media in stratifying or developing the political space?
This is a good question. As you know the media environment in Ethiopia has been influenced by the nature of the governments on power. For instance, during the imperial era, much of our media had been mouthpieces for the emperor. It was literally impossible to be critical of the emperor and the overall system. The situation even goes further in preparing list of taboos in which no journalist is allowed to write a story about.
The state of the media was even worse during the period of the Derg. Although the Derg initially allowed some level of freedom to Ethiopians in 1974 and 75, it soon turned out to be a dictatorship. It is interesting to remember a case that the Derg had nationalized all private media organizations. Besides, the Derg officially opened a censorship department under Ministry of Information to control the content of not only media products but also music and films. This period can literally be seen as a dark age of Ethiopian journalism as no one likes to work as a journalist in this period. So, the media had no chance to contribute to the development of democracy.
The development of media during the heydays of EPRDF was a bit hybrid. What I mean is that there were some good experiences and at the same time some worrying cases regarding the media. For instance, EPRDF can historically be praised for abolishing the Derg’s draconian practice of censorship and for drafting proclamations that give journalists and media outlets relative freedom. However, although Ethiopia had accepted almost all international standards that consider protection of freedom of media, it was barely practiced on the ground. For that matter, Ethiopian journalists usually speak about their daily challenge in accessing public information.
Besides, some journalists who criticize the government were thrown to jails on a number of occasions. This had led to a culture of self-censorship to be developed in the whole media system. Thus, the role of media in developing a space for negotiation had not been without challenges.
Currently, the country is undergoing various processes of changes/ reforms that can be dubbed as historical. How do you see the role of the media in this regard?
Well, it is clear that we had been in what we call a ‘tectonic change’ over the past three years or so. We were all amazed by the positive gesture brought by PM Abiy Ahmed to the socio-political landscape. This got some recognition globally which made the PM become the winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. I believe we have seen some good steps that improved the media landscape. For instance, today, we don’t have websites that are banned in Ethiopia or such a grave violation of human rights. A lot of journalists that I recently interviewed told me as they would not feel frightened as a journalist than the periods before.
I am not saying like everything is okay or there are no problems. For instance, we are hearing news stories regarding the jailing of some online media outlets. As a media educator I find this is concerning. But I also think one should understand the whole context we are in. The country is undertaking a law enforcement operation in the Northern part of the country. I believe there are many international actors to this conflict who would like to see a weak state in Ethiopia. So, this might have led the government to take some serious measure on media outlets that report on issues that jeopardize national security. So, the court should facilitate the trial of these journalists. The public has the right to know whether these journalists are jailed for some reason or it is a political incarceration.
As compared to elections carried out so far in the country, how do you see the utilization of media by political parties in the recent national general election?
I believe elections are periods that show the importance of the media to the political system. It is through media that political parties disseminate their ideas to the public so that they get their votes. In this regard, there was a positive gesture from the government in allocating a fair amount of free air time to competing political parties. In the previous periods, we used to hear grievances of opposition political parties regarding the amount of air time or space. But this year, we have not heard much of these questions from political parties.
It is true that some political parties including the leading PP have effectively used the media for political campaign. Other political parties were not vibrant enough in effectively using the media. For instance, I remember seeing some TV stations broadcasting just music because they have not gotten content from political parties. This might be due to the fact that some parties face problem in preparing a campaign material on time. This is totally understandable because not all parties not in equal footing. While some political parties have better social based and resources, others still struggle with scarce wealth to conduct good campaign. But, all in all, what we observed this year is something better.
Ethiopia is now facing external pressure because of GERD and law enforcement in Tigray, among others. How do you see the activities of the media in securing the countries national interest?
This is a good observation. We are seeing that our country is fighting a massive global campaign due to GERD and the law enforcement operation in Tigray. It is crucial to understand that the Western world under the guardian of the US and the UK is doing everything possible to blackmail the good image of the country. If you ask me the question ‘why they are doing that?’ we can see it in a wider lens. I believe we are fighting against neo-colonialism. When much of the western world find it impossible to colonize poor African states in its traditional form, they started using more subtle political, economic and diplomatic tactics to control us. To do so, they use the support of their deeply partisan ‘global media’ outlets and NGOs. It is through these tactics that they produce knowledge which they use to accuse countries in a trap of human right violations or other techniques.
I appreciate that a lot of humanitarian organizations are working to support victims of the conflict in Tigray region. It is also important to note that these humanitarian organizations were seen engaging in political affairs in their reports which make us question the motive of their presence in the region. Besides, these organizations do not see everyone equal. I am saying this because we have seen little attention was given by these humanitarian organizations in May Khadra, Metekel, Ataye, and Gedeo where people demand real humanitarian support.
We have seen a lot of instances that the Western media are instruments of their power base- usually their governments. Although it is known that it is electric dam which doesn’t arrest the water flow, they have produced countless news stories arguing that GERD would be bad for Sudan and Egypt. And, it is more amusing that we had to go the UN to explain why Ethiopia is constructing the dam and expect their OK. This is totally unfair.
The same is true about what we saw in the conflict in the Northern part of Ethiopia. A lot of global media outlets do not like to talk about the reasons why Ethiopia in a war right now. This is because if they do so, they would know that TPLF had provoked the conflict. They don’t want to raise this. They know that no democratic nation on earth would hesitate to go to war, when its national military command is attacked by some organized group. They rather produce a lot of sensational, biased and more importantly factually inaccurate news on human right abuses in the region. These media organizations are feed with false information from their local fixers and translators who are working with the TPLF oligarchy.
If these media are really bastions of human rights, they would have opposed the recruitment of thousands of child soldiers by TPLF. Although this is a serious crime in international law, we saw global media outlets such as the NY Times and AFP rather romanticizing children participating in the TPLF conflict. So, one has to see the big picture. Therefore, there is a lot that the local media organizations can do in exposing the lies and disinformation attempts of these neo-colonial actors.
Thank you for your cooperation!
You’re welcome!
The Ethiopian Herald July 24/2021
