Political communication Vis-à-vis Anti-Terrorism Laws: The Case of Ethiopia
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia uses legislation as one way of counterterrorism. This legislation is “Anti-
Terrorism Proclamation; Proclamation Number 652/2009.” Against its principal aim of
preventing every intent and act of terrorism, some claim that the law shackles the
political communication in the country. The primary purpose of the study was to explore
the impacts of the law on political communication as practiced by various political parties
and media organizations.
In attempting to explore the impacts of the law, the Spiral of Silence and Media Politics
Theories were used as theoretical framework of the study. Media-terrorism relations
model was also employed to support the analysis.
The study is entirely qualitative method in which some political parties and print media
organizations were purposively selected for the analysis. Accordingly, nine multi-ethnic
political parties: Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, All Ethiopia Unity
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Organization, Ethiopian Democratic Party, Ethiopian Social Democratic-South Coalition
Unity Party, Ethiopian Raie Party, Coalition for Unity and Democracy, Ethiopian
Democratic Union, Unity for Democracy and Justice and Blue Party were selected. Seven
media organizations: Addis Zemen, The Reporter, Addis Admas, Ethio-Mihidar, Addis
Guday, Fact and Lomi were also selected for the study. Semi-structured interview with
representatives of political parties and media organizations and textual data obtained
from the publications were used in the study. The textual data collected from the
publications were stories and features ran from 8 July 2013- 10 October 2013.
This study has found out that the Ethiopian Anti-Terrorism Proclamation affects the
political communication by further weakening the already weak political communication
by repressing opposition political parties and media organizations. The law suppresses
opposition political parties by restricting political space, intimidating members and
supporters as well as through routine surveillance. Similarly, the law affects the political
communication of media by pressurizing journalists, challenging access to information
and intensifying self-censorship. However, the study has found out that all the existing
problems of political communications should not be considered as the byproduct of the
proclamation.
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Keywords
Anti-Terrorism Laws