From State Repression to Fear of non-state Actors: Examining Emerging Threats of Journalism Practice in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Non-state media journalists in Ethiopia traditionally faced safety threats emanating from state-sponsored attacks and punitive legal frameworks. Recently, however, state hostility is being replaced by non-state actors’ aggression against journalists. By framing emerging threats of reporters’ safety in Ethiopia within normative vis-à-vis alternative debates of journalism practice in the context of transitional, unstable, pluralistic-partizan societies, this study examines the prevalence of non-state actors in remapping threats of journalistic impunity in Ethiopia. Key findings from interviews conducted with editors, reporters, and other practitioners indicate, while the government cannot be ruled out as a safety threat for journalists, there is an emerging consensus that identifies non-state actors such as vigilante groups, influential social media political personalities, and weaponized media as the most perceptible safety risks to journalism practice. Although threat levels vary depending on journalists’ regional affiliation or perceived ethnic identity/political worldview, domestic journalists face increased native othering that amounts to mobility restrictions and physical aggression compared to foreign correspondents.

KEYWORDS:

• EPRDF
• Ethiopia
• ethnicity
• journalism
• othering
• partizanship
• repression
• safety

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Both OPDO and ANDM, which changed their names to the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) and the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) in 2018, respectively, are defunct.

2 There are a few newspapers such as The Reporter, Capital, Addis Fortune, and Addis Admas that have run for a longer period of time. Unlike other publications’ highly critical or partisan political profile, most of these newspapers were able to avoid the fate of their counterparts by focusing on business news and social affairs.

3 See FOJO (2017) and Tilman (2017) and for insights on the emergence of private broadcasters in Ethiopia recently.

4 The terms “nations, nationalities, and peoples” are central pillars of the current Ethiopian constitution that affirms Ethiopia as a multinational state where “sovereignty resides in the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia” (FDRE House of Representatives 1995, 4). See Fasil (1997) for the significance of these terms for Ethiopia’s contemporary federal design as well as people-to-people relations.

5 After months of rising tensions, the dispute between TPLF and the federal government culminated in an outright war. As of the writing of this article in December 2020, the Ethiopian military captured Mekelle, Tigray region’s capital, and the federal government declared fugitive TPLF leaders as criminals and issued arrest warrants for their capture.

6 See report by Skjerdal and Moges (2021) about the increasing “ethnification” of the Ethiopian media landscape.

7 The respondent used the Amharic word gult, which historically refers to an oppressive feudal land tenure system in Ethiopia. In broad terms a gult owner is someone who had land ownership rights extended to them by higher authorities such as monarchs or provincial chiefs, who in turn, collects taxes/tribute from peasants that worked on the land. I translated the respondent’s metaphorical use of የርዕዮተ ዓለም ጉልቶች (ye re’eyote alem gultoch) into its closest literal English equivalent “ideological fiefs.”

8 Çelik, Bilali, and Iqbal’s (2017) use of othering in a domestic context is instructive here.

9 The Amharic word ferenji loosely refers to “a foreigner,” particularly one with Caucasian descent.