Media council urges journalists to discharge responsibilities during election process

The Ethiopian Media Council (EMC) urged local media houses and journalists to live up to their responsibilities while reporting the upcoming general elections.
The media council organized and conducted a training session on election reporting in collaboration with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) and the Embassy of France to Addis Ababa at Ghion Hotel on March 18, 2021.
In his opening remarks, Chairman of the council’s executive body, Amare Aregawi pointed out that the media need to play a constructive role in promoting peace and security through balanced election reporting. 
Raising the awareness of journalists about the code of conduct for the media during the election process was the main objective of the training, he added.
The chairman further added that the training marks the first of a series of trainings that will be organized by the council over the coming two years. 
Solomon Girma, Senior Project Officer at International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) that works in partnership with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), briefed trainees on the code of conduct that mainly raised the need to be impartial, independent and refrain from reporting issues that incite violence during the election.
Solomon further indicated that while reporting events and issues during the election, journalists have to respect the culture and norms of the community and respect regulations of the NEBE.
Tamrat Hailu, secretary of the Council, told The Reporter that the training session serves as a first step towards implementing the council’s objective of promoting press freedom by fighting the illegal and improper government hands laid on the press.
According to Tamrat, the training is also an important milestone for the council that came to this reality after fighting and persevering for close to two-decades to register as a legal entity under the country’s former CSO proclamation.
More than 30 journalists and media professionals drawn from various media houses based in Addis Ababa attended the training.
The Council – whose members include publishers, broadcasters as well as media associations – was formed on January 12, 2016 following a general assembly held at the assembly hall of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). But it had to wait for at least three years before it could formally be recognized as an independent civil society organization (CSO) under the newly-amended proclamation that governs CSOs.