Integration of special forces faces resistance
and the 'ethnification of the Ethiopian media' (part. 2)
The past week’s news cycle has been dominated by one story; the decision passed by the federal government to reintegrate regional special forces into the existing security apparatus and the resistance to this decision in Amhara region.
I have written a longer post on that down below. But before we get to that, I will share the second part of the report from last week on the, ‘Ethnification of the Ethiopian Media’.
This was part of celebrating the 10th edition of Sifter. I presented the section of the report that talked about media and ethnicity in Ethiopia, in relation to the historical context, and the current leadership. If you haven’t seen that, you can go here and see what I wrote.
This section below is on the story analysis done by the report. The research picked a few big stories that took place in the past few years and tries to see how they were framed by different media houses, or in the reports own words, “how ethnicity is used in media texts to promote or protect a certain ethnic group, political ideology or political narrative.”
The Ethnification of the Ethiopian Media (part. 2)
Analysis of stories
One thing the study says right off the bat, is that is that there hasn’t been enough studies done on this; that is on the ‘interplay between media discourse and ethnic identity in Ethiopia’.
For this particular study, the researchers selected eight specific cases (or events) and reviewed how they were covered by 10 outlets. Specifically, these outlets were Oromia Broadcasting Network, Oromo Media Network, Dimtse Weyane Tigray, Tigray TV, Amhara TV, Amhara Satellite Radio and Television (Asrat), Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Addis Zemen (Newspaper), Ethiopis (Newspaper), and Berera (Newspaper).
There’s a brief description on some of these outlets in the previous post.
Now, from these eight cases they chose to analyze, they looked at 133 stories written on these cases.
The approach taken
The media outlets were selected because they were diverse in language, represent both regional and federal media outlets, some are privately owned and some are state-owned and they have different stands on ethnic identity.
In doing these 133 stories, these media outlets used 145 sources. From these sources they used, only 5 of them did not have political affiliations. What this means, in short, is that, most of these ethnic-based stories used political members and political activists as sources.
Most of the these stories also used only one source.
The stories selected
The story of the abducted students in Oromia Region in December 2019.
The clashes between Amhara and Qimant in Gondar in September 2019.
The case of Welkait and its historical ownership; an ongoing tension between the Amhara and the Tigray regional states.
The celebration of Irreecha, a ritual ceremony of the Oromo community, in Addis Abeba for the first time in 150 years.
Activist-turned politician, Jawar Mohammed’s call for support on Facebook in October 2019, which led to 87 people being killed.
The June 22, 2019 assassinations of four top officials, including the regional president of the Amhara region and the Chief of the Army.
Sidama youth’s demand for a referendum before the day 11.11.11 in the Ethiopian calendar (July 19, 2019), which resulted in the death and displacement of people.
The establishment of the Prosperity Party in December 2019, the restructuring of which has fueled many political controversies.
The theories used
The study uses annihilation framing and othering theories.
The way annihilation framing was used here, simply put, was by showing when a media outlet was hiding a negative side of its own ethnic group or the positive sides of another group (through different techniques).
Othering is examining how the media creates a “Us” versus “Them” mentality.
I won’t got into the details of how these media houses covered these stories but I highly encourage you to read through the report as it provides clear examples. (It’s not that long and it’s an easy read.)
For instance, in some cases, it shows how a certain media house conceals certain negatives through ignoring important parts of the story (also known as silence or omission). Case in point was the abduction of the Amhara students in Oromia Region.
It says,
“While action was taken in the Amhara region to put pressure on the government to work on the release of the abducted students, these media channels (Oromia Broadcasting Network, Dimtsi Weyane and Tigray TV) did not report the case. Similarly, previewing its news channel, EBC was hesitant to report the case too.”
Another interesting framing it uses is the non-ethnic motive, which is where the media reports stories avoiding the element of ethnicity. Here’s what it says,
“For instance, EBC reported the case of Woldia University which claims the lives of two students (Oromo students) without siding to any group. The story reported on November 10, 2019 attempts to define the problem of the conflict as not known. It does not seem to relate the case as ethnically or politically motivated.”
Another interesting way of framing stories in Ethiopian media is using symbolic attachment, meaning ganging up with one ethnic group to attack another (common) opponent, aka, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.
In conclusion
The report shows what some of us have been observing for a while now, that Ethiopian media puts ethnicity at the center of its reporting. By doing so, the report says that the media is, ‘reinforcing hate among the Ethiopian community.’ That is a lot to be responsible for.
And while polarization is not new, in the good old days, it used to be state versus private media houses. Nowadays, this polarization is based on ethnicity.
Integration of special forces faces resistance
The government’s decision to reintegrate the regional special forces into the existing security structures of the country has not gone down well.
Last week, a statement from the Government Communication Services said that there had been discussion with leadership and members of special forces and there was a consensus on this integration; that this was also the request of citizens.
What this decision meant was that every member of the special forces in all 11 regions will be integrated into one of the three; National Defense Force, Federal Police or Regional Police.
This is ‘integrating’ the special forces and not ‘disarming’ concludes the statement.
This has been opposed in Amhara Region. There were protests across 10 cities in the region yesterday according to Wazema Radio, which reports that members of Amhara special forces have left their camps in groups to go to more secluded hide outs. The region’s president, Yilkal Kefale, is now calling for their return.
Tensions were also high in cities like Bahir Dar and Gondar according to Addis Admass, with some companies in the area passing orders for employees to remain at home. Internet has also been shut off in these cities including cities like Woldiya, Kombolcha and Dessie, with fights erupting between Amhara special forces and the National Defense Force.
Residents cited in the story say that their region is facing attacks from all corners and that this ‘disarming’ move will endanger and leave the community at risk.
Opposition political parties have also put out their statements regarding this. The National Movement of Amhara said in a statement that there has not been any discussions held with regional special forces prior to the implementation of this decision and that his could endanger the entire country. Balderas for True Democracy on its part said that it is a good decision but one that was poorly timed. Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice said that this process should have been started earlier.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted a statement yesterday, saying that, this decision is made partly to benefit the special forces – give them proper mechanized training, equip them and give them their due acknowledgment for the sacrifices they have paid thus far.
However, he added, this decision will be implemented with the necessary scarifies, if it comes to that.
The full story in Amharic on Addis Admass here and an English analysis piece on Ethiopia Insight here.
Foreigners Arrested over Illegal (Gold) Mining
The Ethiopian government has detained more than 90 foreigners found to have been illegally working on mining activities in two regions in Ethiopia; Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz.
These suspects have been found not only working illegally on extracting gold and other precious metals, but also smuggling them out of the country. They were caught based on tips from the local community.
The full story on Addis Standard here.
This week wraps up the special edition of Sifter and I’ll be back next week with the usual news updates! Until, then, if there are specific areas on news or media you’d like me to explore more, don’t hesitate to hit reply or send me tips!
Have a great week!
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Note: I go through all the major news outlets, newspapers, online publications, and will at times, include reports, notes on parliamentary sessions, and go through fact checking websites as well. I try to provide links to both English and Amharic sources, and I usually time stamp the video I link to unless I think the whole video is relevant.