Addis Abeba, July 30/2021 – The Deputy Director of the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA), Yonatan Tesfay, and General Manager of Ahadu Radio, Tibebu Belete, said foreign media organizations are disseminating distorted and untrue information about Ethiopia, hindering the international community from understanding the real situation on the ground.
Speaking to state owned ENA, Yonatan blamed the biased coverage of the international media during the government’s “law enforcement operation” in Tigray State and said it has hindered the international community from understanding the truth.
Yonatan further accused foreign media of staying silent about the government’s last month announcement of the “unilateral ceasefire”. “When we come to the recent stand of the foreign media outlets after the unilateral ceasefire, there are no more reports of ceasefire,” ENA quoted him as saying.
Similarly, Tibebu, who leads the local FM, Ahadu Radio, accused foreign media of having “paid actors” and “lobbyist groups.” “When TPLF was in power and committed tremendous and ruthless human right abuses in Ethiopia, these media outlets did not say anything. But now they are deliberately trying to portray the country heading toward becoming Syria, Libya and other countries because these are paid writers and there are lobbyist groups in various media outlets,” ENA quoted Tibebu.
He also accused people who appear as “journalists and analysts” of advancing the agenda of the “terrorist TPLF.”
Both Yonatan and Tibebu called on the Ethiopian public to “stand united to push back” against such coordinated media attacks and suggested the government to “fill the information gap” by having a coordinated information center.
In addition, both reiterated the need to engage in various foreign languages to tackle misinformation campaigns against Ethiopia. To this end, they called on the participation of Ethiopians in the use of social media “to stand guard” and “defend against negative campaigns” and “show the truth.” AS
