Ventriloquism is the art of talking with the tongue and not moving the mouth or face. When a skilled ventriloquist does this sitting beside a figure that has a moving mouth, it looks like the figure is talking. It works because humans use their eyes to find sound source. It is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere.
Likewise, western media are not doing what they are supposed to do independently. Situations clearly indicate that they are being maneuvered to feed the world with fake news. The news they report is not what they have professionally documented; blind folded, they write what the ventriloquist; a powerful party rather compels them to write.
Every profession has it defined principle that governs the doings of the professionals. It should be noted that parallel to the principles, there is always convenience: one can bend the convenience to fit the situation, but principles cannot at all be bent, if it’s done it breaks and the result will be devastating. There should always be a guiding rule for what we do. We do not haphazardly handle things, there should be a guiding rule and we are expected to act within parameters of the rule to positively affect our profession and prove its fruitfulness. So, shouldn’t some western media and CNN avail themselves of every opportunity to put themselves back to the track of right professional journalism? Such big media can easily be exposed when they commit mistakes that their profession does allow not all.
There are a number of standard ethical principles for journalists that bind western journalists those working for Aljazeera, AFP, BBC and CNN from the United States and few others. The standards dictate that Journalists have an obligation to seek out the truth and report it as accurately as possible. The aforementioned media have totally disregarded the necessity of honesty in their report simply to produce the voice that is projected to them by the ventriloquist. They seem to forget or overlook the obligation they have to fulfill. In most of their reports they have not sought out the truth; rather they often report fake news to misguide the international community about the criminal act of the junta – massacring innocent civilians for none of their mistake. On the other hand, if worse comes to the worst, they do not even make mention of the incidence at all. As a result, Ethiopians are misunderstood and very disappointed with how these media conduct themselves regarding the war situation. Their act is equivalent to waging a clandestine war on Ethiopia to please the ventriloquist. One can be forced to conclude that they do not have their own voice except what is projected to them. Ventriloquists use puppets that cannot speak to perform their art of ventriloquism to entertain their audience.
Akin to this, in principle, journalism’s centuries old tradition, fairness is what reliable media are reputed for; but in the twenty first century, the nominally gigantic media have totally deviated from one of the prominent pillars journalism- fairness. If the media cannot act in a just and honorable behavior it is not at all worth calling them news media. From the point of how news is reported about the war in northern Ethiopia, the media are not acting in accordance with justice. To satisfy or meet the demands of the western countries including the United States that spearheads the attack, these media deliberately avoid reporting exactly what has happened. Instead they capitalize on misinformation and disinformation and tirelessly labor to turn the catastrophic force of the international tide against Ethiopia.
As if they can come up with better solutions, they ward off the suggestion that African problems should be solved by Africans themselves. For instance Thomas Ankara of Burkina Faso, who once tried to set his country on right track of reliable development, was assassinated for the simple reason that he decided to manage his country’s development problems without the interference of western countries and the United States in particular. The tragedy of it is that the country plunged back into dire poverty due to the malicious acts of these countries. As a result sure have rejoiced for their mission was accomplished.
Likewise, under the pretext of the violation of human rights, the so called developed or western countries consciously designed a calamitous project to destroy Ethiopia. To achieve their objective, they make effective use of their globally acclaimed media such as CNN, AFP, BBC, Aljazeera, and the like. Because of that, the world is now on the brink of passing a vote of no confidence pertaining to the commitment of the West and the United States for democracy. Regretfully, according to them, their democracy, one way or the other, should be in line with selfish interest of their countries while disregarding that of the victimized party. The ‘Made in America’ business in which the United States has already nominated nine future leaders of Ethiopia against the interest of Ethiopians is appalling. The country that propagates democratically elected government contradicts its own policy. The economic, political and social devastation they have caused in many countries is in the name of democracy which proved to be futile in all the cases.
These subservient media breathe with the lungs of the ventriloquists in the manner which helps them gain pecuniary advantage. That is why, despite the stark truth, they are seen giving too much respect to their masters. Thank God, in the wake of such development, after a long time, Amnesty International successfully carried out its mandated responsibility by exposing the atrocious act of rape by soldiers of the junta on quite a number of defenseless women has taken the international community aback after reading their report. The narration of the story itself is rather sickening – for instance a woman being raped by five men at the gun barrel – a daughter being raped while the parents watch – a mother being raped in front her children who could not do anything to rescue her except weeping. Beatings and dehumanizing verbal abuses have had negative psychological impact on the victims.
It seems that the perpetrators have gotten away with the crime for the time being. In total, more than 70 women are said to have gone through the harsh experience and all of them did not get any medical attention for both physical and psychological injuries as the rebels had destroyed all the medical facilities available in the area. Such is the heart-rending bestial acts that the western media and the CNN virtually did not care to give it any news coverage. They, in fact, are witnessed to support the criminals by shamelessly blaming the government’s defense force for committing the crime.
When the government forces and the militia gain ground, the barrage of criticism from the international community that Ethiopia is violating human rights is intriguing. As a matter of fact, UN Human Rights Chief warns the state of emergency with sweeping powers of arrest and detention risks deepening divisions and worsening human rights situation. All the blabber is not because he is concerned about the people he thinks are being affected but because he is worried that the government is taking effective measures to put the rebels under control and maintain the law.
Abreast of the rebels’ atrocious activities, the intensification of propaganda by some western countries against Ethiopia is outrageous. They have blatantly disseminated their fake news that Addis Ababa is under siege is their intention to discourage foreigners to travel to Ethiopia as tourists.
All in all, the negative attitude western countries and the United States and their media have against Ethiopia is staggering. To combat this situation, the only option Ethiopia is left with is clinging to the indomitable force of her unity. Ethiopians from all ethnic groups, age and walks of life should draw together and merge as one entity and one nation. This way victory looms on a not too-distant horizon.
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD NOVEMBEBER 16/2021
