DR BIRHANEMESKEL ABEBE SEGNI IRRA ESAT TV must apologize and retract its headline news from May 12, 2014 that it presented as if there is large scale inter-ethnic conflict going on between ethnic Amharas and Oromos in the town of Gimbi, Oromia, Reinventing Ethiopiaa. Media, whether government owned or privately run, has a responsibility not to provoke hostility and inflame political and social conflicts among communities when it is clearly imminent that it will undermine the general welfare and common good of societies. What ESAT TV, a Diaspora based Amharic speaking media outlet, aired yesterday, May 12, 2014, was a malicious and inflammatory propaganda to provoke conflict between the Oromo and Amhara communities in Gimbi. It is particularly abhorrent and hell bent evil to air individual and isolated dispute as if there is a city wide inter-ethnic conflict between the Oromo and Amhara communities of that city. ESAT Amsterdam station is known to air hate speeches and unverified stories, but this one crosses the proverbial redline guiding the operation of any media business. To be fair, the ongoing Oromo students protest against the Addis Ababa Master Plan will displace and evict more Amhara and other communities in the center of Addis Ababa disrupting and dismantling their social, economic, religious and other societal fabrics as much as it affects the Oromo farmers surrounding Addis Ababa. It is a legitimate question of development policy choices for all concerned. However, using this legitimate policy question as a basis of inter-ethnic conflict is out-rightly wrong. ESAT, its owners, and editors should immediately apologize for what they aired and retract this store in its entirety. Not doing so will be considered as a malicious act designed to shore up constituency by exploiting societal soft spots for shortsighted political gains.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 19:54:31 +0000
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