Amanuel Gebru (Ass.Profe.)Hailegiorgis Mamo2024-06-272024-06-272024-03https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/3262This study is a phenomenological examination of first-hand accounts of how twelve Ethiopian private press journalists faced both personal and professional difficulties while carrying out their journalistic duties during the EPRDF era. The researcher employed a phenomenological research approach using Alfred Schutz's "Life World" theory as a lens to understand the “essence” of the phenomenon under study. The participants who were deemed to be involved in partisan journalism narrateded their prison experiences and obstacles in both their personal and professional lives within the specified time period. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to collect qualitative data, and interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. In order to determine the "essence" of the phenomena, the study mainly looked into how these private press journalists faced trying circumstances while jailed at various detention facilities during the EPRDF era. The study shows that the EPRDF administration was a difficult period with a number of challenges for journalists, although some of them openly practiced partisan journalism and were to a degree blameworthy. Regardless, the administration's draconian interference with journalists' civic and professional freedoms, coupled with the journalists’ ownopenly partisan practices, cost them both their professional and personal freedoms. Ethiopia's political system—both present and future—should learn from the past, and treat journalists with respect for the realisation of press freedom and respect for human rights. On the other hand, journalists should also make every effort to engage in professional journalism and refrain from partisan journalism that comporomises their professional identity and image. Key words: Lived experience, Private press, Journalism in Ethiopia, Phenomenology, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Authoritarian Democracyen-USPrivate pressPhenomenologyThesis