Editors from private and state media met in Addis Ababa on Aug. 19, 2019 to found the Editors Guild of Ethiopia, the country’s first editors’ association, New Business Ethiopia reported.
Participants take notes at a journalist training in Ethiopia, photographed on August 17, 2005. (USAID Africa Bureau / Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]
Media executives and editors from the Somali, Dire Dawa, Amhara and Tigray regions attended the founding meeting, which elected a seven-member executive committee, the business news site said.
The association aimed to promote professional journalism through media literacy and by building the capacity of journalists and media managers, among other goals, the report said.
The meeting was organized with the Danish nongovernmental organization International Media Support. Tewodros Negash, the group’s representative in Ethiopia, said discussions among editors had been going on since December 2018, and that IMS planned four years of support for professional media, including community media in the regions.
Studies cited at the launch identified weak institutional capacity, stringent government laws and low media literacy as major obstacles to professional journalism in Ethiopia, New Business Ethiopia reported.
The guild says it was founded on Oct. 29, 2019 and registered with the Agency for Civil Society Organizations under registrar number 4527. It describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan membership association of editors in print, broadcast and digital media.
Sweden’s Fojo Media Institute and International Media Support began capacity building for journalists’ associations in 2019 and supported the guild’s establishment, the Center for International Media Assistance said in a report. Two years after its founding, the guild had no office space or staff and was fighting to stay afloat, the report said.
With IMS support, the guild began a weekly Editors’ Breakfast Forum for 30 news editors on Aug. 10, 2023, holding 13 sessions at the Hilton hotel in Addis Ababa, according to its published proceedings.
Sources: New Business Ethiopia (Aug. 19, 2019), Editors Guild of Ethiopia: Who we are, Center for International Media Assistance: Media Reform During Ethiopia’s Political Transition, Editors Guild of Ethiopia: Editors’ Breakfast Forum proceedings (2023)