Ethiopia Media Sector Alliance (EMSA), an informal platform setup in 2019 to support the development of the media sector of Ethiopia, today held meeting to review its activities over the past four years.
During the meeting the participants has stressed the growing concern about the safety of journalists and access to information. Since Ethiopia has begun a new political reform in 2019 laws related to media and freedom of expression in Ethiopia has been improved. Meanwhile the practice or implementation of the laws that protect journalists has been a challenge, according to Amare Aregawi, chair of Ethiopia Media Council (EMC), who addressed the meeting.
Building system and institution is critical for the implementation of the laws in Ethiopia related to Ethiopia, according to Amarae Aregawi, who noted that individuals in the government system are the once in violation of the laws.
Some of the media factors that have challenged the media market between 2020 2022 include human and technical capacity lack, spread of hate speech, journalists’ inclination towards their ethnicity, lack of digital literacy, interferences from self-censorship and authorities, according to the study presented by Elsabet Samuel (PhD), independent consultant who presented her paper.
Fact checking has also been among the challenges observed within the media in Ethiopia, according to the consultant. She mentioned that the number of female journalists in Ethiopia has been increasing though some have not been staying long in the profession.
Today’s meeting held in the capital Addis Ababa at the UN Economic Commission for Africa conference center is being attended by participants representing various media outlets, academia, civil society, embassies and donors engaged in media and journalism support activities.
In her other presentation Elsabet Samuel Common interest is portrayed in the landscape as a partnership between local and international partners or in the form of consortium between international organizations. Her findings show that local ownership and leadership of media intervention program planning and execution is critical for media development in Ethiopia.
She noted that Ethiopian Media Authority and EMC play significant role in promoting professionalism and journalistic ethics. EMSA can enhance its engagement on the way forward focusing on media business and sustainably; media coalition and networks and journalism education, according to the consultant. She also suggested that EMSA needs to have subgroups such as one focusing on resource mobilizing and coordination etc.