Ethiopia's Crackdown on Journalists

 The Committee to Protect Journalists published on 1 August 2022 a commentary titled "Journalists Face Growing Hostility as Ethiopia's Civil War Persists" by Muthoki Mumo.  

According to the Committe to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Ethiopia now ranks with Eritrea as sub-Saharan Africa's worst jailer of journalists.  CPJ has documented the arrest of at least 63 journalists and media workers since November 4, 2020, the outbreak of civil war, at least eight of whom remain detained as of August 1, 2022.  

Challenge of Ethiopia's Media in World of COVID-19

Ethiopia Insight posted on 18 June 2020 a commentary titled "Reviving Ethiopia's Press Post-Pandemic" by Marew Abebe Salemot, Debark University. 

The author describes the challenges facing Ethiopia's private sector print media and television in the age of coronavirus and suggests that some will not survive. He offers some ideas for keeping the sector alive and well. 

China, Africa and Social Media

Veteran journalist Eric Olander moderated a one hour twelve minute radio program on 14 April 2013 titled "China-Africa Relations in the Age of Social Media."  The participants were Cobus van Staden, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Johannesburg, Yu-Shan Wu, researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, and Jinghao Lu, analyst on the China-Africa desk of Frontier Advisory.

While the focus of the discussion was on the impact of social media on China-Africa relations, the wide ranging discussion covered a variety of other issues including Chinese investment in Africa, Zambia as a food source for China, the importance to Chinese of business trust, Chinese tourism in Africa, role of the press, African attitudes towards Chinese, racism and neo-colonialism.

An Analysis of Somali Print, Online Media, Radio and TV

Mohamed Husein Gaas, Stig Jarle Hansen and David Berry have prepared an excellent analysis and survey of Somali print, online, radio and television media. Titled Mapping the Somali Media: An Overview, it is dated March 2012 and available on the NORAGRIC website. Click here for the full report.

NORAGRIC was established in 1986 as a center at the former Norwegian Agricultural University. In 2005, it became the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the renamed Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

This is a fascinating study of a an important topic both in Somalia and the diaspora that has received little attention in recent years.