A pressing issue

It was noted at the marking of May 3, 2007 as World Free Press Day that the year saw the highest level of persecution and attacks on the spirit of free speech since official records began. This on-slaught on publishers, editors, reporters, free-lancers, bloggers, webmasters and others is international in scope.
It is not at all comforting to see our nation at the top of the list of countries with the most deteriorating records in press freedom. It is mortifying when we remember that not too long ago nearly 1000 different publications thrived in a growing media culture.
The voice of the masses is irrepressible. It manifests itself in the oddest of ways especially in societies where the state is also the only press…like in the Ethiopia of the late 19th century and also during the ‘Socialist Ethiopia’ between 1974 -1991.
Forbidden outright or implicitly threatened, the public invariably resorts to not just the rumor mill and conspiracy theories but most frequently to humor.
Aleka Gebrehanna was a legendary and still much loved character of late 19th century Ethiopian court life. He was a sort of socio political pundit whose famed wit and sharp repartee spared not even his royal patrons. Aleka could say things that would get others banished or worse …much worse. The stories recounted of his verbal exploits give us an insight into the era’s socio-economic make up and allude to an early form of press expression and freedom tempered with humor in order to make it palatable. One particularly well known story illustrates the great divide between rich and poor-or more correctly, masters and serfs.
The Aleka was invited to a great banquet by a wealthy nobleman but was barred from entering the festival hall because he was not well attired. He returned home to his long suffering wife Mazengyash, and made more presentable in a suit, he returned and was received with respect. The guests and host were then astounded to see the Aleka smear the sauces, stews, meats and injera on his clothes and thoroughly rub the mess into the fabric. Finally, he stood to leave and turning to the host said,
“My Clothes thank you for a splendid meal. Perhaps you will invite Me one day,”
At this point it is said, the chagrined host ordered his servants to open the gates to one and all.
The Derg era was probably the high point of Ethiopian humor creativity as suppressed voices vented themselves in political humor. The latest Mengistu and Co joke was persued with avid glee and whispered on to friends who passed it on…and on…
The burst of weirdly guilty laughter was satisfying and taken as if it were somehow an act of political defiance against a regime which stifled the voice of the masses.
Near complete freedom of the press was proclaimed in 1992. Now, the public could buy a book of Mengistu based jokes!
However, the floodgates burst open too energetically and scarred the journalistic landscape to this day as the newfound freedom was abused by rampant pornography, unethical journalism and a propensity to reflect often biased view points with a not too subtle tribalist inflection. It took a protest demonstration by concerned women to put a stop to the erotic publications.
Our nation has been cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ as the biggest backslider over the last five years. The only comfort if any that can be derived from this ranking is that it implies that, yes, there is some sort of press freedom. It is worth noting that the likes of Eritrea and North Korea were not included as these countries evaded the CPJ survey by not allowing any free press at all.
However, the enigma is that the development of Ethiopia’s free press has been dealt severe blows at various times at the hands of the government, media workers themselves and also a reading public that is averse to impartiality. It is always a case of Government Bad, Opposition Good or Opposition Bad, Government Good. The middle ground, journalism’s traditional fertile environment, is an inhabitable desert.
This situation has forced private media to adopt a firm restraining grip on their pens and a light finger on their keyboards. Heavy self-censorship is the inevitable result of a mixture of jumpy government, reckless journalism and an uncompromising reading public.
Genuine freedom of the press as practiced in the developed nations is the result of decades if not centuries of respect for individual expression. Our country is still but an infant and cannot be expected to match those lofty standards yet. However, if we are ever to develop a thriving free press, the profession must be allowed to flourish. This can happen only when all concerned-the state, media and public work in tandem .Heaven forbid a return to the era of the whispered political joke and may we finally emerge from anything that smacks of self censorship.