A day to remember
By Tesfu Telahoun
Early at 8:30 on Sunday morning, the Rented Houses auditorium located
just after the main gate of Addis Ababa Exhibition Center, was already
filling up with delightful and delighted 4-10 year olds, their respective
family members, invited guests and members of the private and state
media. A huge banner at the front gate read CAPITAL - Charity Christmas
Eve Luncheon – an event this newspaper’s entire staff
had been looking forward to for weeks.
Guests of Honor were Teodros Tefera, on behalf of H.E. Berhan Hailu
Minister of Information, Teodros Zewde representing the Addis Ababa
Millennium Council and last but by no means least, Amare Aregawi
Managing Director of MCC and Editor of renowned Amharic bi-weekly
“Reporter” as well as the English language weekly of
the same name.
The luncheon (actually a late brunch) was preceded by the presentation
of gift baskets for fifty, 4-10 year old children who have either
lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS or in too many cases, have
inherited the virus. The gifts and luncheon, all sponsored by CAPITAL
management and staff, included shoes, school supplies and toys such
as inflatable footballs for the boys and nifty video games for the
girls.
“Merry Christmas and a warm welcome to all on this special
occasion,” said Sister Abrehet Girmay, Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention
Care and Support Organization’s [HAPSCO] dynamic and hugely
motivated supervisor and trainer nurse, responsible for Kirkos Sub
City. HAPSCO has been engaged in HIV/AIDS counseling, care and support
services since 1999, established with the modest funds of Nurse
Tibebe Maco and the help of a group of dedicated health professionals
and social workers.
CAPITAL is honored to have partnered with such a dedicated local
NGO on this occasion, which was organized also in collaboration
with ‘Yebekal” the popular and highly successful radio
program on HIV/AIDS issues run by Pro-Pride Ethiopia.
Abrehet, after explaining the objectives of her organization as
well as on the significance of the event, invited Teguest Yilma,
Managing Director and Deputy Editor of Capital newspaper to deliver
a brief speech.
Teguest Yilma, thanked the assembled gathering and expressed the
heartfelt joy she felt to be given the opportunity of spending Christmas
Eve with the young children and their families.
In appreciation of their contribution and efforts put into the preparation,
Teguest summoned CAPITAL’s staff to the stage before stating:
“As we deliberated on the best ways of celebrating CAPITAL’s
10th anniversary, numerous ideas were being discussed. Among the
ones we unanimously decided on, one idea stood out in significance.
This was to organize, as the launch occasion of a series of 10th
anniversary events this charity focused, family-friendly luncheon
which we are sharing today. I thank the CAPITAL staff, HAPSCO, Pro-Pride
and our valued Guests of Honor and members of private and state
media for making this occasion not only possible but one that I
feel will remain a memorable experience. Thank you again for sharing
Christmas with us – a time of happiness and renewed hope.”
Median Ethiopia
By Tesfu Telahoun
We have come some way since 'Negarit' drums were the sole means
of mass information transfer. The iconic drum skins gave way to
the Negarit Gazzetta, on to the first periodicals and the electronic
media - analog of course.
'Media in Ethiopia' is a four part series of observations on the
developmental path of this increasingly important sector of national
life.
It is a welcome sign to all Ethiopians and particularly to those
of us who live by the pen, to feel cautiously optimistic of the
recently observed, slow but steady rise in the number of electronic
and print media currently allowed and available in Ethiopia.
Or so we would like to think, as we are not entirely sure that we
aren't counting our chickens before the eggs hatch! Let's keep pens
and microphones crossed!
The historical background of media development in Ethiopia has never
been authoritatively researched apart from the odd commemorative
journals and thesis by AAU scholars, students and other indirect
studies. Media in Ethiopia is a narrow, treacherous pathway. It
has been so since the first newspaper - Aemero - and first radio
station Ye Ethiopia Dimts were established and growth since has
been lethargic at best. It is not surprising that this and other
generations long for the kind of rich press, electronic media product
and choices enjoyed by the majority of the world's people. This
unquenched thirst is such an unmet need that Ethiopian media plays
second fiddle to foreign media - in its own backyard.
Today in our country, it is not radios Ethiopia, Fana, FM stations,
and ETV that Ethiopians monitor to and quote when discussing current
events but Aljazeara, CNN, VOA and other foreign voices.
There are very few media outlets (state, private, community etc)
in Ethiopia relative to African nations such as Uganda (100 plus
radio stations and dozens of print media). What is unfathomable
is that despite the scarcity of stations, and virtual absence of
competition programming newspaper content and their level of quality
remains so poor as to be in danger of becoming irrelevant as the
public looks to and can easily access other sources.
There are approximately 11,000 commercial radio stations, 9 thousand
terrestrial television stations and over 8,000 satellite receiving
so called cable TV systems in the United States of America. These
figures are fascinatingly huge even for a wealthy nation such as
the U.S. However, what truly astounds a citizen of a least developed
nation is that all these electronic media can find enough content
to fill airwaves and with such variety as to each have a unique
identity. From our perspective of a nation with such vacant airwave,
the above figures may even sound ludicrous.
Ethiopia has existed with a single national radio(in name only as
the weak broadcast strength was hardly detectable beyond a 50 km
radius) for decades. An educational service followed along with
Television Ethiopia - one of the very first television stations
in Africa (excluding apartheid South Africa and British administered
Egypt).
The military regime (1974 - 1991) hardly wanted to encourage the
development of media even within the confines of state control and
only added an adult education service at
Legedadi in 1981. To give the Derg some credit, the transmission
power capacity of Radio Ethiopia was boosted as well as the erection
of relay stations and other transmission infrastructure. The chief
accomplishment of that era in media development terms was the Sululta
Satellite Earth Station. Finally, the nation was able to receive
live TV broadcasts and other communications services bounced off
an Intelsat 'bird'.
The EPRDF has had the most impact on Ethiopian media development
although it has yet to come to complete terms with the idea of private,
independent operations in electronic media.
Next week: The long learning curve
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