Exploring media representation of Oromo and Amhara protests: A decolonial perspective

This article examines how political power influences the representations of Oromo and Amhara protests by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC). The study is based on in-depth interviews and analysis of archive documents conducted between March 2022 and April 2022 with journalists, editors and managers who had experience working at the EBC. The study reveals how politically invented ideological artefacts continue to shape the EBC’s representations of Oromos and Amharas. This article argues that despite the existence of foundational national instruments and laws for freedom of the media, the EBC’s representations of political, economic, cultural and social inquiries of the Oromos and Amharas remain largely determined by the Tigre People’s Liberation Front/Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front authorities instead of the media professionals in the political system. Media professionals in the EBC were forced to marginalize, ignore and distort the voices of the protesters instead of advancing freedom of expression, which is a central criterion for democratic principles in a democratic state. Based on these findings, this article demonstrates how the political ideology of the ruling party’s supremacy shapes the practices of journalistic values in the EBC.