የኢትዮዽያውያን ዴሞክራቶች ድረ-ገፅEthiopian Democrats' Website

Source: Capital;

By Kirubel Tadesse

An equitable state?

As only 28 days are left for the big day, political parties have intensified their campaigns.

The state media is trying to deliver the legally required equitable coverage to all contesting parties. Some of the coverage given to the opposition parties, however, is creating amusement for media pundits monitoring media coverage during the election period. It is becoming common for the state news agency to write headlines such as "…party holds press conference." The detail of such news stories, which often only extends to three paragraphs, each with three sentences, enlightens the reader only to the fact that the party held a press conference, but says nothing about the message communicated.

Such coverage,especially when they read nearly the entire press release of the ruling EPRDF printed in similar stories, is leading them to question whether the state media is really providing equitable coverage.

There is also another trend the media monitors say they have noticed: the state media has increased the number of news items related to inaugurations of projects such as hospitals, schools, youth centres and the like. Sometimes the news can be about a simple renovation of existing facilities. Guess who cuts the ribbons at the inauguration? They are prominent candidates running for EPRDF in the upcoming poll.