Ethiopia: News – Authority Preparing Media Guideline to Report On Ethiopia Cessation of Hostilities Agreement

Addis Abeba — The Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) has announced that guidelines are being prepared indicating on how the media should report on the AU-led permanent cessation of hostilities agreement between the federal government and the Tigray people’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed in Pretoria, South Africa.

Mohammed Idris, the Director General of the media authority, told the state daily that one of the issues mentioned in the permanent cessation of hostilities agreement is to refrain from reports that disturb the agreement. He also said that media reports that follow the agreement should be reported with a good perspective and as deserved.

Accordingly, media guidelines are being prepared by the authority that will outline how all media outlets should make reports related to the peace agreement, which will create capacity for the institutions and can be used as a reference.

Mohammed further said that false information and hateful speech are counterproductive to the ideas of peace and should be prevented. The guideline is prepared based on the obliging provisions set in the agreement. As such, the media authority will regularly monitor and support all media outlets to respect their moral, professional and legal obligations and direct them on the right track.

The guideline is expected to be finalized within this week, according to the news, and will be made known to the media, the Ethiopian people at large and the international community. He expressed his views that the guideline will help all media to play a beneficial role in peace building.

The issue of peace is a national issue and the media’s role in ensuring peace is irreplaceable, and their responsibility should be based on professional ethics and morals derived from the idea of what positive role the media can play to help the agreement succeed and and help the affected society to recover, the news quoted the director general as saying.

Accordingly, each very media institution should play a positive role in helping the victims to be rehabilitated and the interaction within the affected community to be strengthened so that the agreement can achieve its goals.

As the sequel of the agreement signed in Pretoria on 02 November, the top military leadership of the federal army led by Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, Chief of the Ethiopian Defense Forces, and Lt. General Tadesse Worede, chief of Tigrayan forces, are on their second day of a three day meeting taking place in Nairobi, Kenya. AS

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