The International Media Support (IMS) and Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED) have released a book on Ethiopia’s state of media sector development and trends in Addis Ababa yesterday August 17, 2023.
The book entitled “Compilation of Briefing Papers on the Media Sector Development in Ethiopia” was released at the workshop organized to disseminate the findings of the studies commissioned by the PRIMED programme.
According to the organizers, the document is expected to contribute to deepening understanding about what factors are most effective in enabling locally driven coalitions to emerge and thrive through externally supported media development efforts.
“IMS commissioned studies, assessments and learning briefs which have been reviewed by independent reviewers and subject matter experts and validated in stakeholder validation workshops,” they indicated.
The aim of the event, they said, was also to provide participants and stakeholders with an opportunity to discuss relevant and pertinent challenges and propose alternative, innovative, and practical solutions and actions.
The publication of the briefing papers aims at looking into the ways how media reports are more accessible, trusted, inclusive and independent and create enabling environment to informed decisions that affect people positively.
“The workshop also aims to discuss and examine the current political and media space, the state of civic space, the role of coalitions in (re)shaping the media landscape, challenges, lessons learned and good practices,” the two organizers said.
The stakeholders met and deliberated on the state of media and media coalitions, practical ways to expand coalition-building activities and gather innovative and practical solutions to emerging and new challenges.
They have also identified the ways of Ethiopia’s media coalitions can be further strengthened in the future and promote cooperation, collaboration, and information sharing between media, government, CSOs, donors, academia, and other relevant actors.
The statement underscores that IMS and its partners in Ethiopia, namely BBC Media Action and the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), are jointly supporting independent media and journalism through a consortium since October 2019 with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). It is helping to build technical expertise, professional editorial standards, and stronger institutional and financial foundations to help develop existing media partners into public-interest models.
IMS Ethiopia is leading the PRIMED’s ‘Coalitions for Change’ workstream and managing support for coalition building. Since 2021, IMS has been supporting dialogues and coalition-building activities, which brought Ethiopian media into dialogue with media and policymakers on media policy reforms and actors into closer cooperation in media policy reforms.
It also supported a series of dialogues and coalition-building initiatives and worked with different media associations, government, and other civil society organizations and helped initiate and create coalitions of Ethiopian media actors on matters of common concern, such as journalists’ safety, security, and protection.
PRIMED is a project that seeks to strengthen the independent media’s ability in developing countries, namely Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, to produce free, independent public interest journalism and provide fora for constructive public debate, both offline and online.
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