Ethiopia
Ethiopia has reached position 101 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index in 2021 (WPFI), 1 being the best possible position and 180 the worst possible. The WPFI is a ranking created by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a French non-government organization that reports on press freedom in 180 countries. Ethiopia has gone down from its previous position of 99 because of the civil war that is raging in the northern parts of the country and its effect on the media landscape.
According to RSF, since the start of the civil war in the Tigray region, there have been serious violations of the rights of journalists.
RSF reported that Ethiopian journalist Lucy Kassa was attacked by gunmen in her home in Addis Ababa. The attackers took away all the materials that Kassa had gathered during the civil war. However, the authorities made no effort to investigate the case and find the perpetrators.
According to Reuters, other journalists have been detained by the police and released without charges days or months later.
One of them was Dessu Dulla, an editor in a local media outlet, who was arrested last year while covering the detention of a political activist. Dulla was released three months later. He told a Reuters correspondent: “I thought it would be another era and that democracy and freedom of speech may be restored, but actually things are deteriorating.”
Freedom House (FH), another non-government organization that aims to protect civil and political liberties in all countries around the world, has given Ethiopia a score of 27 out of 100 in its annual Freedom in the World (FITW) report. 100 is the best possible score, according to FITW, and 0 is the worst possible.
One of the reasons for the country’s position in FITW is the government’s decision to introduce a new media law. According to FH, the wording of the law is vague and unclear, and it could be used by the official authorities to censor journalists and media outlets.
In his article published on the Reuters Institute website, Benon Herbert Oluka, a Ugandan journalist, argued that the government may be also a reason for media polarization in Ethiopia. Oluka wrote: “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.”
According to RSF, in 2018 Abiy Ahmed, the newly elected prime minister of Ethiopia lifted the ban over more than 200 news websites and blogs in the country. However, this decision gave rise to various local media outlets. Oluka said about them: “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.”
Regarding the prime minister, Oluka also added: “While Abiy’s efforts to mend fences with neighbor Eritrea won him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, the ethnic fault lines in his own country have grown deeper.“
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Frantsiska Kutevska is studying Journalism and Mass Communication and History at the American University in Bulgaria. She is interested in covering stories of cultural societal importance.
