In April 2019, The Washington Post reported that after years of repression, Ethiopia’s media opening under Abiy Ahmed was also fanning ethnic tension, with critics saying a newly polarized press was making politics worse.
The feature followed journalists working from half-empty offices who had gained room to publish, then watched hate speech, partisan channels, and rumor markets grow alongside legitimate reporting. Freedom without institutions is not the same as a public sphere.
Abiy Ahmed’s government harvested praise abroad for unblocking websites and releasing journalists, then faced the harder test of regulating violence-inciting content without sliding back into censorship. That dilemma never left.
As press-freedom reference, the WaPo file still cuts. Later arrests of journalists under Abiy Ahmed’s regime make the 2019 warning read less like foreign fretting and more like an early diagnosis.
Sources: The Washington Post
