n style=”color: #ff6600;”>Africa-Press – Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, April 3/2021/ENA/ The media should serve all political parties in nonpartisan way while covering the 6th General Election that will be held in June, 2021, according to Ethiopian Media Council.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ethiopian Media Council Chairperson Amare Aregawi said media outlets have to provide timely, balanced, and accurate information about the election in a responsible manner.
“The main function of the media council is to create ethical media. Therefore it urges the media to ethical, impartial, and non-partisan when reporting election,” he noted.
The council has started giving training to journalists on the code of conduct issued by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).
According to the chairperson, providing training on the code of conduct is very important not only to journalists in Addis Ababa but also in other parts of the country.
Amare Aregawi, who is also the founder of Media and Communications Center, said the council will provide training in six major towns of the country.
The series of training would equip the media with the ethics and knowledge to fairly and equally treat all parties, he said, adding that arbitration tribunals have been set up to deal with grievances by any party or body.
“The media should treat all the candidates equally as long as their parties are legally registered and running. We are working on this,” the chairperson stressed.
Furthermore, Amare called on “all media outlets to file balanced reports, news and commentaries. In light of the current situation in our country, I would like to emphasize that the media should stick to professional reporting in all their reports.”
At the same time, he noted that they must refrain from publishing information that foments division or antagonistic discussion, which are likely to incite violence or jeopardize social cohesion.
Ethiopian Media Council Executive Committee Member, Tamirat Hailu said on his part a journalist has basically a code of conduct; but they should also respect the Electoral Code of Conduct.
Ethiopia Media Council was established in January 2016 with the objective of contributing to the development of professional and responsible media in Ethiopia.
