(21 April 2012, By Graham Peebles)--Graham Peebles looks at how the
increasingly paranoid regime of Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi is
systematically tightening its monopoly over information, suppressing free
speech and suffocating media freedom. "Disempowerment is the aim, and the
means are well known, crude and unimaginative: keep the people uneducated, deny
them access to information, restrict their freedom of association and
expression, and keep them entrapped."
Democracy
denied
Democracy sits firmly upon
principles of freedom, justice, social inclusion and participation in civil
society. Where these qualities of fairness are absent so too is democracy.
President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, while talking the democratic talk to his Western friends, the African Union and donor countries, knows little of democracy, human rights or the manifestation of democratic principles. He rules Ethiopia with a heavy hand, severely restricting free assembly – a right written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), inhibiting the freedom of the media and in many ways denying the people of Ethiopia freedom of expression.
While media independence throughout the world is contentious at best, autonomy from direct state ownership and influence is crucial in a free society. Yet, the Ethiopian state owns and strictly controls the primary media of television and radio. Access to information is also limited, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) makes clear in its report, One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure: Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in Ethiopia. Increasingly, the Ethiopian government has been systematically tightening controls, restricting the political space available to the opposition and stifling independent civil society.
President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, while talking the democratic talk to his Western friends, the African Union and donor countries, knows little of democracy, human rights or the manifestation of democratic principles. He rules Ethiopia with a heavy hand, severely restricting free assembly – a right written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), inhibiting the freedom of the media and in many ways denying the people of Ethiopia freedom of expression.
While media independence throughout the world is contentious at best, autonomy from direct state ownership and influence is crucial in a free society. Yet, the Ethiopian state owns and strictly controls the primary media of television and radio. Access to information is also limited, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) makes clear in its report, One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure: Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in Ethiopia. Increasingly, the Ethiopian government has been systematically tightening controls, restricting the political space available to the opposition and stifling independent civil society.
Owning
information
The main sources of information for
the majority of Ethiopians are (the state owned) television and radio. The
print media is of little significance, due to low literacy of the adult
population (48 per cent), high levels of poverty and poor infrastructure,
making distribution difficult. The internet is also restricted, with access to
the web the lowest in Africa. The World Bank estimates that only 7.5 per cent
of the population has internet access.
The government of Ethiopia also controls all telecommunications and uses its control to deny the majority of the population access to another key area of mass information. This is an additional infringement of basic democratic principles of diversity and social participation. As Noam Chomsky says, the most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships or modern corporations. “Party dictatorship” fits the Ethiopian government like a glove.
Meles’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is in fact a dictatorship masquerading under the guise of a democracy. Ethiopia’s citizens cannot speak freely, organize political activities or challenge their government’s policies through peaceful protest, voting or publishing their views without fear of reprisal. Read more from Redress Information & Analysis »
The government of Ethiopia also controls all telecommunications and uses its control to deny the majority of the population access to another key area of mass information. This is an additional infringement of basic democratic principles of diversity and social participation. As Noam Chomsky says, the most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships or modern corporations. “Party dictatorship” fits the Ethiopian government like a glove.
Meles’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is in fact a dictatorship masquerading under the guise of a democracy. Ethiopia’s citizens cannot speak freely, organize political activities or challenge their government’s policies through peaceful protest, voting or publishing their views without fear of reprisal. Read more from Redress Information & Analysis »
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