{"id":447169,"date":"2023-05-22T06:24:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=447169"},"modified":"2023-05-22T06:24:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:24:43","slug":"ethiopia-suspends-orthodox-tv-channel-amid-fears-of-government-interference-in-eotc-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/447169","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia suspends Orthodox TV channel amid fears of government interference in EOTC affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ethiopia\u2019s media regulatory body, Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) announced on Sunday it has \u201ctemporarily suspended\u201d the media license of the Mahbere Kidusan TV channel amid fears of government interference in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhado Church (EOTC).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a letter widely circulated on social media, EMA said Mahbere Kidusan TV channel was suspended after publishing an \u201cinflammatory message\u201d designed to disturb the ongoing meeting of the EOTC Holy Synod.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mahbere Kidusan had earlier on Sunday published an information reportedly about efforts to ordain new bishops with a majority vote from EOTC Synod members in violation of the church\u2019s canonical rule that prescribes that appointment of new bishops happen through consensus from all EOTC Synod members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The information published by Mahbere Kidusan media outlet indicated that EOTC church leaders are also being pressured to appoint new bishops based on ethnicity and political affiliation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is widely believed to be orchestrating the division inside the EOTC church as the PM reportedly tries to exert total control over Ethiopia\u2019s oldest continuous religious denomination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Separately, the online media outlet, Wazema Radio reported on Monday morning the detention of Birhanu Admas, Director General of a local TV station, Hagere TV by security forces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Birhanu is also a prominent Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhado Church teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopia\u2019s media regulatory body, Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) announced on Sunday it has \u201ctemporarily suspended\u201d the media license of the Mahbere Kidusan TV channel amid fears of government interference in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhado Church (EOTC).\u00a0 In a letter widely circulated on social media, EMA said Mahbere Kidusan TV channel was suspended after publishing an \u201cinflammatory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":447170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5845],"class_list":["post-447169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news","tag-ethiopia-agoa-pm-abiyu-s"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/mk.jpg?fit=843%2C1206&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1Skp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447171,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447169\/revisions\/447171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}