Ethiopian journalism from self-censoring to silence: a case of reporting on internal conflict

• Main Author: Mulatu Alemayehu MOGES
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Etudes Scientifiques Spécialisées Appliquées aux Communications Humaines, Economiques, Sociales et Symboliques 2017-07-01
• Series: Essachess
• Subjects: Keywords: internal conflict; Ethiopian media; fear and self-censoring; omission; silence
• Online Access: http://www.essachess.com/index.php/jcs/article/view/374/409

This article examines the extent to which journalists of The Daily Monitor and The Ethiopian Herald report on internal conflict, especially ethnic conflicts, which were prevalent during the study period, from 2005 to 2013, in Ethiopia. These two English medium dailies newspapers were purposely selected due to their high circulation and longevity in the media market as well as their focus on current affairs. The study employed both content analysis and interviews data collection and process in tools. The result shows that only a small number of internal conflict stories were reported in the selected newspapers and journalists were found to prefer refraining from reporting ethnic conflicts. This is attributable to the fact that journalists live in the circle of fear and self-censorship resulting in the exclusion of ethnic-related conflict stories in the selected media.