Building Knowledge, Sharing Insights
This blog started in 2010, during an era of hope. The Arab Spring was reshaping the Middle East, Iran’s Twitter Revolution had shown the world what digital dissent looked like, and in Ethiopia, a wind of change was blowing too. I was a young teacher in Arba Minch, and blogging felt like the most natural Continue reading This Blog Has Found Its Place
In Ethiopia, a television program meant to spotlight social struggles has instead become the center of a national controversy, exposing the fragility of media ethics, the deep fault lines of ethnic politics, and the unchecked power of digital influence. The storm began with New Chapter, a widely watched social welfare program on EBS, one of Continue reading When a Social Welfare Show Becomes a…
A Sudden End to Decades of Journalism Reports indicate that all employees of the Voice of America (VOA) have been placed on administrative leave, effectively bringing an end to the organization’s operations. This abrupt decision follows Elon Musk’s claim on X (formerly Twitter) that “nobody listens to VOA anymore.” While Musk’s remark aligns with a Continue reading The Silencing of VOA: America’s…
Meta recently announced a halt in fact-checking initiatives. They also decided to reintroduce political content to the newsfeeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. This raises significant concerns. These concerns are particularly notable in the Sub-Saharan African context, where misinformation already poses a serious threat to information integrity. A recent study examining fact-checking…
When I launched this blog in 2010, I couldn’t have imagined how deeply it would shape my journey. Ethiopia’s digital landscape at the time was in its infancy. Internet access was a rare privilege, confined to universities and urban centers, and smartphones were virtually unheard of. Cyber cafes were the lifeline to the online world. Continue reading Full Circle: Returning to the Blog That Started…
A note on my absence I have not been blogging on my personal blog since last August but not without excuses. Over this period a lot have been happening- I have been searching for a new job, traveling a lot and looking a place to reside in Addis, hence I have averaged an article per Continue reading From Supreme Court to Council of Ministers
Last week “The Capital”, one of the three weekly English newspapers ran an article about “Members of Ethiopian Media decision to set up media council and enact code of conduct” where they describe the council as a self-regulatory body which set to examine complaints submitted to the media council by the public or any concerned Continue reading An Initiative of Ethiopian Media Council: A Media…
Introduction Forty-one days passed since Prime Minster Meles Zenawi was seen on public. In the days after his last appearance on Ethiopian State Television ETV, social media particularly Facebook and Twitter was used to give sensitive information about Meles Zenawi’s health, the hospital where he is being treated, the kind and the cause of his Continue reading How and who to follow on the…
Prime Minster Meles Zenawi has always been a man of mysteries and at this time he kept being conspicuously a mystery for Ethiopians as he has not been seen in public since the last G20-Meeting. His disappearance has touched off a blaze of rumors on twitter and Facebook. Meanwhile Ethiopia’s pitiable media which is forced Continue reading Unpacking the rumor dynamics about the whereabouts of Meles…
Well we Ethiopians have never had dragons in our mythology and folklore like Chinese but so far there has been attempt by Ethiopians to bring on dragons to our culture in the most nauseating manner – internet censorship. Comparatively internet has been the last remaining source of relatively free information for tech-savvy Ethiopians which are Continue reading A Perspective on the New Ethiopian…