As Ethiopia struggles toward democracy, press under fire

Down the cobbled alleyways of this capital, up above the grocery stores, and tucked away behind garages and hairdressing salons, are the offices of Ethiopia's thriving private presses.

There sit the journalists, hunched and crowded around rickety tables, typing away under flickering lights and bemoaning the broken phone lines, the low salaries, low prestige - and the new press laws.

Since the "Derg" regime of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam ended 11 years ago, private newspapers have been sprouting in this country. At last count, there were 93, most of which have an average staff of two (who usually need to subsidize themselves), a readership of a few thousand (approximately 65 percent of Ethiopia's 65 million people are illiterate), and scant advertisers. Their biggest fan club? Boiled bean vendors, who use newsprint to wrap their wares. This might, say detractors, be the best use for some of them.

While the number of responsible, professional private papers here is growing, many editors rely heavily on "borrowed" copy from the Internet or unverified stories that have little relation to the truth: The Ethiopian president is reported dead, the exact date of a US invasion of Iraq is announced, and various businessmen are charged with corruption.

Not surprisingly, the government wants more accountability. Introduced earlier this month, the proposed press laws seek to regulate printed press, and are expected to sail though parliament next month. But journalists see it as a blow to this country's emerging democracy.

"This is a death sentence passed on the freedom of press in Ethiopia," writes Amare Aregawi, editor of the "Reporter." He points out that in a country where both radio and TV are still state owned, the private print press is the only nongovernment voice being heard. "Itwas born out of anger and the wish to exact revenge," he claims, "and makes the country, the public, and the government a laughingstock of the world."

But Ethiopia is just one of several young African democracies where reporters and the government are fighting over the right balance between encouraging a responsible press and allowing journalists to perform their role freely as watchdogs.

Diplomats and other observers here say that, while perhaps not quite as draconian as journalists assert, Ethiopia's proposed new laws - with their long, ambiguous clauses - are a clumsy step in the wrong direction for this fledgling democracy. They had hoped, they say, that the Ethiopian government and the press - both equally unused to the powers of freedom of expression - might have found a better way of regulating the media.

"This is a country with no real experience in plural democracy," says Laura Williams, a political secretary at the British Embassy. "So you have [a] government which understands, intellectually, that it needs to loosen up, but emotionally finds it hard to accept criticism from the outside." On the other hand, she points out "...there are some papers that don't understand journalists have a duty to tell the truth." The outcome, she concludes, is that government "...tars all papers, good and bad, with the same brush - and now plans to further deny them access or freedom. It's not good."

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