May 18, 2005
Filling the news vacuum
This long wait for an official election result has created a real news vacuum in Addis Ababa. At the moment, that vacuum is being filled by the local newspapers which are selling thousands upon thousands of copies every day.
The Amharic paper Aqual apparently printed 80,000 copies today - I heard its regular print run is around 15,000. And the street newspaper vendors are also taking advantage. A copy of Aqual would have cost you 4 birr today, compared with its regular cover price of 1.50 birr. The Reporter, which normally sells for 2 birr, cost 5 birr on the streets this afternoon.
Best of all, people have started taking down the election results posters from the doors of polling stations, photocopying them and selling them off for 50 cents a copy. Now that is real grassroots journalism.
The market economy is alive and well - in Addis Ababa at least.
[Claim and counter-claim update - Ethiopia's two main opposition groups say they are heading for victory in Sunday's poll, contradicting claims of victory from the ruling party. The opposition CUD and UEDF groupings claim to have already won more than 200 seats in the 547-member parliament...Here's the full story.]
Posted by aheavens at May 18, 2005 7:22 PM
Comments
Thanks, I visit your blog several times a day and indeed I find that it does fill the news vacuum.
Posted by: YB at May 18, 2005 11:16 PM
hey andrew
some serious news vacume has really created, this in no surprise in ethiopia beacuse the goverment hates those who seek thruth.... It has repeatdly proven this over the years
Posted by: mike at May 19, 2005 5:01 AM
The Truth will win. CDU leaders the ethiopian people are with you.
Posted by: weare1 at May 19, 2005 5:42 AM
Beautiful reporting !! Concerning local newspaper. Please tell us your opinion about their activities. In my part I respect local newspapers but they need some journalistic etiquette, which they should seriously consider when reporting any news events. Due to this lack I hate all local private newspapers except amharice and English newspaper Reporter, Addis admass and Fortune and Capital.
To my knowledge the rest are something next to nothing. They are in this solely to make profit rather than providing news and insight to their customers. In top of that they are all ignorant of the low and constitution of the country.
Posted by: zeimpex at May 19, 2005 3:23 PM
Congrats on the mention in Slate.com !!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2119264/
Posted by: Jeff at May 20, 2005 2:48 AM
Good job, Ethiopians are with you.
Posted by: Admasu at May 28, 2005 2:25 AM