A critical look at the digital diaspora more

The Power of Communication Changes and challenges in African Media Kristin Skare Orgeret & Helge Rønning (eds) Unipub 2009 © Unipub AS 2009 ISBN 978-82-7477-454-4 Contact info Unipub: T: + 47 22 85 33 00 F: + 47 22 85 30 39 E-mail: post@unipub.no www.unipub.no Publisher: Oslo Academic Press, Unipub Norway Printed in Norway: AIT e-dit AS, Oslo 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission Contents Introduction: Changes and Challenges in African Media Helge Rønning & Kristin Skare Orgeret Strengths and Weaknesses: Political change and the media in Africa since the 1990s Helge Rønning A Decade in the SABC: Continuity and change within the public broadcaster Kristin Skare Orgeret Relevance and Popularity:Debating public broadcasting and tabloidisation in South Africa Wallace Chuma Three Decades of Public Television and Political Power in Zimbabwe: 1980–2009 Winston Mano Media, Politics and Power: Re-gearing policy and propaganda in crisis Zimbabwe Sarah Chiumbu & Dumisani Moyo New ICTs and Social Change in Southern Africa Martin Nkosi Ndlela The Influence of the Media: Audiences and impact in Mozambique Helge Rønning 5 25 67 103 135 177 215 243 Bridging Digital Divides:Exploring the Principles of the Community Multimedia Centre Model in Uganda Carol Azungi Dralega A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Terje S. Skjerdal Contributors Index 285 311 349 353 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Terje S. Skjerdal Introduction It is no longer enough to look into the domestic media to understand African media cultures; one must look outside of the continent too. The African diaspora throughout the world – especially in the US and Europe – has lately made a significant impact on the African ‘media ecology’ as a whole. The contribution is basically made possible through the use of Internet technology. Websites, blogs and newsgroups run by the diaspora are becoming important means of news communication in and out of the continent. The diaspora media both serve to bring news and views from the homeland to the fragmented diaspora communities around the world and, more generally, to formulate and uphold a cultural identity for the communities regardless of national boundaries. However, the diasporainitiated media also have the potential to counter local news production in the homeland and to define an ‘extraterritorial’ public sphere with the view to influence local politics. This seems to be particularly discernable in cases where the local media situation is only partly free and where the political opposition is discouraged by the authorities through various means, such as in Zimbabwe and Eritrea. The opposition is then aided by the diaspora through the creative use of discussion forums and news sites on the Internet, causing distress for authoritarian-like governments 311 312 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia which want to control the information flow but are struggling to grasp the intangible new media. The key issue is to what extent the diasporic media communities actually have an impact on political opinion formation, either in the homeland or abroad. There are reasons to believe that the media ‘in exile’ do have transnational political influence, though perhaps not primarily on the arenas usually thought to be the main target of these outlets. At the same time, there are reasons to look critically at the functions of the diaspora media as extensions of the public sphere in the homeland. Although they are usually acclaimed for providing alternative arenas for discussion and sustaining a public discourse of cultural identity issues, the outlets are uneven in terms of quality of news, source assessment and so forth. The main focus of this chapter is on Ethiopia, where the diaspora media could play a potentially significant role as alternatives to the local media. Since the first diaspora site opened in Washington DC in 1994 (Nazret. com), a vast number of sites and blogs have started up with the primary purpose of reaching the Ethiopian public abroad. Most of the sites are small in terms of audience numbers, although a site like Ethiomedia.com claims to have as many as 40,000 page-hits a day. The discussion forums attached to the sites are highly vibrant at times. It is not unusual for the discussion thread following a news item posted on Nazret.com to contain more than 100 posts, for example. Politically controversial topics naturally attract more attention. Many of the sites have a marked oppositional political identity, posing a long-distance challenge for the government in Ethiopia. Both the appearance and content of the sites bear a message of opposition to the country’s leadership, as will be demonstrated later in the chapter. The aim of this chapter is twofold. First, it will try to ascertain the operations and identity of the diaspora media with particular attention on outlets, which provide grounds for political discussion. The research object is Ethiopian diaspora websites and owners/editors of nine such Terje S. Skjerdal 313 sites have been interviewed1. The contents of many more sites have been assessed and discussion forums/newsgroups have been followed over a long period of time. Second, it will discuss the possible contribution that the diasporic new media bring to local politics in the homeland, and to international politics concerning the homeland – i.e. what can be termed transnational politics. This chapter’s approach is perhaps more critical than when the alternative media of the diaspora are under discussion. Having followed Ethiopian diaspora websites for a few years, I have become less certain that they live up to their self-image as participatory, independent, ‘voice for the voiceless’, good-quality news channels. Despite being impressed by their passion and acknowledging the unfavourable conditions that led to their existence, I find it timely to take a critical look at the sites and to ask whether they achieve the ambitions they set. Moreover, the possible role of the diaspora media in shaping the international society’s attitudes towards the homeland is one that deserves attention. Indeed, perhaps even more so in the case of Ethiopia where information coming out of the country regularly is sparse. Research on Diaspora Media: A brief overview Much research on diaspora media has a sociological approach, whereby the aim has been to understand how the media construct or negotiate a transnational identity for the diasporic communities2. The ethnic media, as they are sometimes called, serve a dual purpose: keeping the diaspora up-to-date about the homeland (the informative function) and keeping See list at the end of the chapter. See for instance Cunningham S. and Sinclair J. (2000). Floating lives: The media and Asian diasporas, St. Lucia, University of Queensland Press, Queensland; and Karim K. H. (2003). ‘Mapping diasporic mediascapes’, in K. H. Karim (ed.), The media of diaspora: Mapping the globe, Routledge, London, pp.1–18. 2 1 314 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia them together in their new location (the social function). One may also add a third function: informing the host country about the diaspora’s interests, although this function has traditionally been less foregrounded. It has been suggested that the diaspora goes through different phases in its relationship with the ethnic media, as demonstrated by Harry H. Hiller and Tara M. Franz who identify three phases in the cycle of internal Canadian migrants: pre-migrant, post-migrant and settled migrant3. The transition from post-migrant to settled migrant occurs about five years after the migration and marks the point when the new media predominantly serve to maintain their homeland identity rather than to facilitate home contact on a more operational level. A similar change in the media orientation, although over a longer time perspective, is suggested by Karim Haiderali Karim who points to a more active use of the media to connect with homeland politics among first-generation immigrants than subsequent generations4. Since the mid-1990s, studies on the diasporic media have increasingly focused on the use of the new media and their potential to create a genuinely transnational public sphere. The Internet, in Annabelle Sreberny’s words, is the “diasporic medium par excellence”5. It contains no territorial boundaries, it connects communities that are far apart in practically no time and the production line is cheap. The rise of the Internet has also spawned a whole new research area which interrogates the relationship between transnational identities and global communications in the new digital era; this has led some researchers to hint that there may even have Hiller H. H. and Franz T. M. (2004). ‘New ties, old ties and lost ties: The use of the Internet in diaspora’, New Media & Society, 6, 6, pp.731–752. 4 Karim K. H. (2003). ‘Mapping diasporic mediascapes’, in K. H. Karim (ed.), The media of diaspora: Mapping the globe, Routledge, London, pp.1–18. 5 Sreberny A. (2001). ‘The role of the media in the cultural practices of diasporic communities’, in T. Bennett (ed.), Differing diversities. Transversal study on the theme of cultural policy and cultural diversity, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, p.156. 3 Terje S. Skjerdal 315 been too great an emphasis on the contribution of the new diasporas to issues of globalisation6. Focusing on the Eritrean diaspora, Victoria Bernal found that the Internet has created a venue for Eritreans abroad to produce and debate narratives of history, culture, democracy and identity7. The creative space of the new media is emphasised here and blogs, websites and discussion forums become an arena for re-articulation of national and cultural values beyond the public sphere that existed within the confinement of the geographical home country. The new media can also foster a cultural commonality that transgresses national boundaries, such as during the Iraq invasion in 2003 when many websites served the entire Muslim diaspora community and were not only aimed at the Iraqi diaspora8. In the fascinating case of Sierra Leone, at least as argued by Robert Tynes, a listserv generated a virtual nation, pending the re-establishment of the physical nation9. These research cases are all examples of promising opportunities that the new media have brought to diaspora communities. In terms of diaspora media, one can certainly speak of different eras before and after the coming of the World Wide Web. An interesting situation occurs when the diaspora adopts a technology that is totally unfamiliar to the home society, such as in the case of the Harari diaspora10. Most people in the eastern Ethiopian city of Harar are unacquainted with the World Wide Web, but the diasporic Hararis are still able to use the Internet actively, not only to negotiate their home identity Sparks C. (2007). ‘What’s wrong with globalization?’, Global Media and Communication, 3, 2, pp.133–155. 7 Bernal V. (2006). ‘Diaspora, cyberspace and political imagination: The Eritrean diaspora online’, Global Networks, 6, 2, pp.161–179. 8 Hirji F. (2006). ‘Common concerns and constructed communities. Muslim Canadians, the Internet, and the war in Iraq’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 30, 2, pp.125–141. 9 Tynes R. (2007). ‘Nation-building and the diaspora on Leonenet: A case of Sierra Leone in cyberspace’, New Media Society, 9, 3, pp.497–518. 10 Gibb C. (2002). ‘Deterritorialized people in hyperspace: Creating and debating Harari identity over the Internet’, Anthropologica, 44, 1, pp.55–67. 6 316 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia but eventually also to influence policies concerning their hometown. This implies that the application of the cyberspace by the diaspora is not trouble-free; thus challenges such as the digital divide have been addressed by several diaspora media researchers11. Lilian N. Ndangam reports a remarkable means of dealing with the digital divide in the Cameroonian press: The Post newspaper’s website is partly taken over by the diasporic audience who have the expertise and resources to develop and administer such a site – and they do it on a volunteer basis12. The flipside, however, is that outsourcing the online production to the diaspora possibly also means that the digital divide is sustained or even broadened. The Internet represents a significant innovation for the diaspora in that it has the potential to expand the ethnic public sphere and create a venue for talking back to the homeland. Admittedly, the radio medium has served a similar function for decades with shortwave broadcasts aimed at homeland audiences, but the Internet has far greater potential for interactivity when the audiences are turned into active recipients. Partly in contrast to traditional ethnic media outlets, diasporic websites tend to have a key focus on political issues in the homeland. This is made possible by the potential of the online media to provide easy and speedy access to reports from the homeland, as well as catering for vigorous opinion exchanges between the various diaspora communities abroad. A core agenda for many diasporic online media outlets of this kind seems to be to bring about social and political change in the homeland. As such, the diaspora stands out as a community which genuinely cares about the conditions at home and the 11 For instance Benítez J. L. (2006). ‘Transnational dimensions of the digital divide among Salvadoran immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area’, Global Networks, 6, 2, pp.181–199; and Ackah W. and Newman J. (2003). ‘Ghanaian Seventh Day Adventists on and offline: Problematising the virtual communities discourse’, in K. H. Karim (ed.), The media of diaspora: Mapping the globe, Routledge, London, pp.203–214. 12 Ndangam L. N. (2008), ‘Free lunch? Cameroon’s diaspora and online news publishing’, New Media Society, 10, 4, pp.585–604. Terje S. Skjerdal 317 subtext appears to be one of perpetual identification with the country of origin – perhaps with the intention to return in the not so distant future. It should not come as a surprise that the diasporic new media outlets occasionally set the agenda for the domestic media back home. Farooq A. Kperogi compared the content of diasporic Nigerian websites with websites in the domestic media and found that the latter pick up issues from the diaspora media: albeit somewhat reluctantly as the domestic media prefer to invent their own stories13. Issues raised by the diaspora media could simply not be ignored at times, such as when connections between the Nigerian president and American lobbyists were exposed14. Kperogi argues that the approach used by the diaspora sites is a type of ‘guerrilla journalism’. This is a practice known from Nigeria in the 1990s when weekly news magazines confronted the military dictatorship through uncompromising and adversial reporting. Such journalistic practices are easily adopted in web journalism, since the content producers are safely situated far away from possible threats by homeland authorities. The diasporic online media may be seen as a form of alternative media. They represent an alternative to the domestically distributed media and are often run on a non-commercial, small-scale basis. In an assessment of Zimbabwean diasporic online media, Dumisani Moyo concludes that many of the news websites have attributes that situate them within the traditional understanding of alternative media15. They give a voice to people otherwise unheard; their viewpoints stand in stark contrast to the views of the official media in Zimbabwe; they sometimes resemble underground media; and they are – at least to an extent – de-professionalised, de-institutionalised Kperogi F. A. (2008). ‘Guerrillas in cyberia: The transnational alternative online journalism of the Nigerian diasporic public sphere’, Journal of Global Mass Communication, 1, 2, pp.72–87. 14 Ibid. p.80 15 Moyo D. (2007). ‘Alternative media, diasporas and the mediation of the Zimbabwe crisis’, Ecquid Novi, 28, 1–2 , pp.81–105. See also Nkosi Ndlela, ‘New ICT and social change in Southern Africa’, this volume. 13 318 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia and de-capitalised16. At the same time, Moyo aptly draws attention to the vast diversity within the diaspora sites. Some of them are indeed quite professional in their journalistic activity, as well as institutionalised and capitalised. Moyo therefore rejects these being referred to as ‘alternative small media’, arguing they should rather – somewhat paradoxically – be termed ‘mainstream alternative media’. Similarly, as we will see from the Ethiopian perspective, some websites of the Ethiopian diaspora are so popular that they have become mainstream information sources rather than alternative ones and they outshine any online or printed media in domestic Ethiopia in terms of audience numbers. However, they can hardly be said to be notably capitalised or institutionalised. The Local Ethiopian Media Profile To understand the motivation behind the diaspora’s need to create alternative media outlets, it helps to take a look at the media situation in Ethiopia. The media are sharply divided between private and state-owned media. The state owns the large broadcasting institutions plus four newspapers and a central news agency. The total number of journalists working in these institutions amounts to 1,300, in addition to many more technical and administrative staff17. The private media consist of 37 newspapers18 and 4 FM radio stations, although a number of the newspapers do not come out on a regular basis. The private newsrooms are usually small and Cf. Hamilton J. (2000). ‘Alternative media: Conceptual difficulties, critical possibilities’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 24, 4, pp.357–378. 17 For the exact number of journalists in the state broadcaster, see Desta Tesfaw, ‘Insights on broadcasting service in Ethiopia’, in Broadcasting situation in Ethiopia. Opportunities and challenges (dialogue report by Panos Ethiopia and Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, 2007), pp.51–79. 18 Information provided by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, which in 2009 took over the formal registration of newspapers in the country. The number of registered publications is higher, but this is the number of private newspapers actually operating as of July 2009. . 16 Terje S. Skjerdal 319 the outlets vulnerable. An estimate of the number of private journalists in Ethiopia stands at around 300 and they work almost exclusively in the capital city, Addis Ababa. Content-wise, the state media are characterised by official information and the promotion of national development. There are few investigative stories, although an investigative weekly programme was aired on Ethiopian Television (ETV) for several years. Both the state media and the private media suffer from lack of resources, which in turn has an impact on the content production. The private media, in contrast to the state media, contain critical stories about the public administration and, less frequently, about private enterprises. The private editors are sometimes highly outspoken and their political affiliation is in the open. This has led several of them being confronted by intimidation from the police and the government, especially after the 2005 national elections when 15 editors and reporters were jailed, along with a number of political dissidents who were accused of treason and incitement to violence. All were later released on conditional pardon. Detentions continue to occur, however, and several journalists have experienced being held in custody overnight, for instance on the basis of alleged defamation, only to be released on bail the day after. 17 of 273 journalists who were arrested in Africa in 2008 came from Ethiopia19. The licensing of newspapers is another hindrance to critical media makers in Ethiopia. Although getting a licence is usually a routine procedure20, a few applications involving previously jailed journalists remain pending. 19 According to the African Press Network for the 21st Century (www.rap21.org) and the ‘US State Department’s Human Rights Report for Ethiopia 2008’, available on http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119001.htm (2nd May 2009). 20 In fact, the media law of 2008 stipulates that a new publication is automatically legally registered if the authorities fail to respond to the application within 30 days (Proclamation to Provide for Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information, no. 590/2008, clause 9 [5]). There is no longer an annual fee to pay for the registration. 320 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia The informal impediments for the private media in Ethiopia are perhaps more decisive than formal regulations. To avoid intimidation, whether from public authorities or other parties, reporters and editors censor themselves – both in the private and the state-owned media21. Self-censorship is particularly rife during times of tension and in political coverage. The practice is symptomatic of the restraints associated with the public sphere in Ethiopia. Even though private media are allowed, and to an even greater degree than in many other African countries, both publishers and the public are fearful of the consequences of confrontations in the media and steer away from getting involved in sensitive issues. Compounding this, the government has taken measures on various occasions to control the news and information flow. In June 2005, during post-election disturbances, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) closed the SMS service to avoid people calling for public demonstrations22. Radio broadcasts from Eritrean state radio, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle have also occasionally been jammed23 and websites have been filtered, as we will discuss later. Anti-government groups, therefore, do not always feel welcome in the public arena and they search for alternative ways to communicate their message. The Emergence of an Ethiopian Online Diaspora The modern Ethiopian diaspora is very much a product of political tensions in the homeland, although it needs to be said that many Ethiopians have come to the North primarily to pursue work and education. The recent waves of Ethiopian emigration started in the early 1970s when royalists 21 Skjerdal T. S. (2008). ‘Self-censorship among news journalists in the Ethiopian state media’, African Communication Research, 1, 2, pp.185–206. 22 The text-messaging service was only fully reopened in September 2007 for the Ethiopian Millennium celebrations. 23 ‘New jamming tactic’, Africa Research Bulletin, 44, 12 (2007), p.17353. Terje S. Skjerdal 321 fled the country after the military Marxist Derg junta seized power from Emperor Haile Selassie24. Political opponents continued to escape as long as the Derg were in power, but political dissidents of various colours kept moving out of the country even after the EPRDF coalition came to power in 1991. Among the famous political opponents who have left Ethiopia in recent years are Kifle Mulat, former chair of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association, and Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in the 2005 elections. Furthermore, ethnicity has played a central role for one group in Ethiopian emigration in particular: namely the Oromos, which constitutes the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia with around 35 % of the population. It constitutes a large group in the diaspora as well25. Sections of the Oromo diaspora continue to be vigorously involved in Ethiopia-related politics, through activism, intellectual efforts and diasporic media initiatives26. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) runs a popular website based in Washington DC with exceptionally harsh critical coverage of the Ethiopian government27, and produces daily programmes for shortwave radios disseminated from Berlin, Germany. Voice of Oromo Liberation, as the station is called, uses both Afan Oromiffa and Amharic languages and is primarily aimed at audiences in Ethiopia and the rest of the Horn of Africa. 24 Lyons T. (2006). ‘Diasporas and homeland conflict’, in M. Kahler and B. F. Walter (eds.), Territoriality and conflict in an era of globalization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.111–132. 25 At least 100,000 Oromos have emigrated to the surrounding countries on the Horn of Africa and 100,000 to Europe and North America, according to Mekuria Bulcha (2002). The making of the Oromo diaspora: A historical sociology of forced migration, Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis. 26 Gow G. (2004). ‘Translocations of affirmation. Mediascapes and cultural flows among the stateless Oromo’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7, 3 (2004), pp.301–319; Habtamu Dugo (2008). ‘Oromo diaspora: Quest for freedom, democracy and new media’, paper presented at the Oromo Studies Association’s annual conference, Minneapolis, USA, 2nd-3rd August 2008. 27 http://www.oromoliberationfront.org 322 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia The focus in this research is, however, not so much on official political party websites, whose content necessarily is highly politicised, but rather on more mainstream news sites where the key intent is to keep the public informed on a daily basis. There are a number of such sites with an Ethiopian coating and an overwhelmingly majority emerges from the diasporic communities in North America and Europe. This is in itself interesting because even if the North can obviously cater for the necessary technical expertise, the same technology and know-how are widely available in the global South, such as in Kenya and South Africa, where there are large Ethiopian constituencies. It appears, however, that there are more conducive environments for setting up new media outlets in the North than in the South. Sometimes the websites have a traditional media equivalent, although usually not. There are a number of local media outlets aimed at the Ethiopian diaspora in North America and Europe, with radio broadcasts being the prime example. The programmes are typically broadcast on community radio stations once a week in Ethiopian languages, mainly Amharic, Tigrigna and Afan Oromiffa. The emphasis in the programmes is primarily on music and entertainment, although news and politics are also common ingredients. The locally-oriented diaspora media outlets and the more globally-oriented websites therefore seem to serve two different purposes. The local media have, first and foremost, a social function and are meant to bring the expatriate Ethiopian community together, while the websites (often appearing in English28) have a wider outlook towards extended audiences and tend to be more centred on news, discussion and conflict. There are also examples of sites which sometimes use Dutch (http://www.ethioguardian.com), German (http://www.ethiogermany.de, http://www.ethiomunich. com) and French (http://www.ethiosun.com), indicating that they are aiming at local audiences in the West too, and not only Ethiopians. 28 Terje S. Skjerdal 323 Online Entrepreneurs: Young and Politically Considerate Who, then, are the people behind the diaspora websites? Based on interviews with nine editors of popular Ethiopian sites, the journalists and webmasters generally seem to be young and energetic. They have an income besides the journalistic activity and are not paid for their webbing endeavours, even though the work demands a considerable number of hours per week. Moreover, they are, or have been, politically active. In response to the question, ‘Were you active in politics while in Ethiopia’, several of the editors affirm that they were student activists. This fits with the appearance of the sites, which is typically inclined towards political issues and critical commenting and reporting on the Ethiopian government. The contributors to the sites also have a certain proximity to homeland affairs, in that they left the country recently. They are rarely remnants from migration during the Derg, but usually left Ethiopia in the past 5 to 15 years. Perhaps this explains why they are still so mindful of politics in the homeland. Finance-wise, the media outlets are occasionally backed by advertisements on the web pages, but the basic running costs are paid from the owners’ own pockets. The costs are extremely low since the technology is cheap and there are no wages paid. Only in a few rare cases, do contributors receive any compensation; interestingly, if someone is paid, the person is usually a local stringer in Ethiopia. This is probably seen as a kind of charity contribution to contact persons ‘on the ground’ in Ethiopia who have a hard time making ends meet. Nevertheless, most contributors from Ethiopia are non-paid volunteers too. The writers, by and large, come from the diaspora communities in the North, however. In fact, the local contact network in Ethiopia for many of the sites is surprisingly narrow. A few of the smaller sites even impart that they have no contacts in the homeland, relying on second-hand reports 324 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia only. The contact with stringers in Ethiopia occurs almost exclusively through e-mail communication or online chatting. Strictly speaking, many of the local contact persons are not stringers as such, since they rarely write full articles but rather help by feeding the outlets news tips. Many of the stringers prefer to remain anonymous, for fear of reactions from authorities or political opponents — please refer to the use of pseudonyms on Zimbabwean diaspora sites29. When specific events occur in Ethiopia which can be interpreted politically, local contacts become all the more important. The post-election turmoil in Addis Ababa in June and November 2005 prompted immediate eyewitness reports from individuals who happened to be at the scene. Photographs of injured persons and casualties became essential. The images were spread within hours, through all Internet channels; nobody asked for permission to use them. Some of the photographs are still posted on diaspora websites in the form of popular slideshows. On December 28th, 2008, Birtukan Mideksa, judge and chairwoman of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, was arrested in Addis Ababa and put in solitary confinement in a prison outside the city for refusing to sign a pardon of acts of treason in the aftermath of the 2005 elections. The detention soon became international news and resulted, inter alia, in a plea from the European Parliament for the immediate release of the prisoner30. Looking back on the information string, it seems that diaspora sites were pivotal in bringing news about the case to the rest of the world. Broad media attention came when Birtukan went on hunger strike, a few days after she was detained; a news item first reported by Ethiomedia. com (Everett, Washington, USA) with the assistance of a local informant in Addis Ababa. Once Ethiomedia.com had posted the news about the hunger strike, citizens took to the streets in Addis Ababa to protest and 29 Moyo D. (2007). ‘Alternative media, diasporas and the mediation of the Zimbabwe crisis’, Ecquid Novi, 28, 1–2 , pp.81–105. 30 EU Parliament Resolution B6 0033/2009 Terje S. Skjerdal 325 international news networks started to report the issue. It was most likely the coverage on Ethiomedia.com that sparked the reactions off. The case demonstrates how the digital era renounces any continental boundaries and how the alternative media channels might provoke action far from their origin. Similarly, the diaspora sites play a central role in fuelling the protest marches against the Ethiopian government in European and North American cities once or twice a year. Hybrid Outlets in the Midland between News and Activism The graphic appearance of the most popular Ethiopian diaspora websites indicates a combination of news and activism. The sites typically have news headlines in the middle of the page, but the wrapping is clearly political. Blinking, colourful posters are prominent and eye-catching, which announce world-wide demonstrations and messages such as ‘Free Teddy Afro’31. There are also easily accessible hyperlinks to political organisations, although typically only to opposition parties. Despite this conspicuous bias towards the opposition, the editors are reluctant to admit that the sites advocate any particular political view. As the editor of Ethiogermany.de says rather characteristically, “Our site is not affiliated with any political party. The site preaches basic human and democratic rights. It voices political prisoners in Ethiopia and fights for free speech and free mass media.” Likewise, the editor of Ethioguardian.com claims, somewhat contradictorily, that, “We have a neutral political ideology, except opposing the current government’s actions and policies.” In other words, being oppositional is equated with neutrality and normality; the undertone being that the current regime in Ethiopia will cease when rational thinking gets the upper hand. 31 Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kassahun) is a famous Ethiopian pop singer who was detained in April 2008 for allegedly being responsible for a hit-and-run accident and later sentenced to six years in prison. He was released in August 2009. 326 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Furthermore, it is taken for granted in the subtext that the global North will support such a shift to ‘normality’. Behind the seemingly strong unity among the diaspora communities, however, tensions are present in the views on how to govern Ethiopia. The relentless dispute between unification and ethnic federalism, which has been pursued in Ethiopian politics for decades, is not resolved within the diaspora; quite the contrary, there is internal competition between the different diaspora-backed parties which formed the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD, now defunct) before the 2005 elections32. The dispute is only partly played out in the instantly available articles on the websites, but the accompanying discussion forums feature heated disputes, not to mention the tone of some of the closed newsgroups with personal registration. Notwithstanding these underlying tensions, the diaspora websites at large promote an imagery of unity among the diaspora founded on hostility towards the incumbent Ethiopian government and struggle for democracy and human rights. In terms of the question of unification vs. federalism, the former position clearly has a more prominent position in the diaspora media. The most vocal part of the diaspora is strongly in favour of nationalist pan-Ethiopian programmes and is fiercely against any collaboration with the EPRDF33. How Authorities Try to Control the New Media Governments around the world are acutely aware of the potential threat of diaspora websites and other foreign sites. This has led authorities to use fairly sophisticated technology to block unwanted content from public 32 Wondwosen Teshome (2009). ‘Opposition parties and the politics of opposition in Africa: A critical analysis’, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3, 1, pp.1–15. 33 Lyons T. (2007). ‘Conflict-generated diasporas and transnational politics in Ethiopia’, Conflict, Security and Development, 7, 4, pp.529–549. Terje S. Skjerdal 327 access, by means such as IP-blocking, DNS-tampering, displaying false blockpages and utilising keyword censorship. Internet filtering is most severe in the Middle East and Asian countries, however, and African countries are still ‘lagging behind’ in this activity34 – perhaps because of the still moderate impact of online media among average citizens. Ethiopia is nevertheless among the countries on the African continent which do utilise Internet filtering. The government-owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) has been accused of using IP-blocking software, which means that certain HTTP addresses are closed off from the nation’s only public Internet service provider. The blocked sites are almost exclusively diaspora websites, such as the critical and popular Cyberethiopia.com and Ethiopianreview.com, which were among 25 to 30 websites that suddenly became inaccessible in Ethiopia in May 2006. The blogging community Blogspot.com, which houses some EPRDF-critical subscribers, has also been blocked. Ethiopian authorities have dismissed the claims as unsubstantiated allegations, although spokesman Zemedkun Tekle from the Ministry of Information35 admits that, “We may have technical problems from time to time, but we have not done anything like that and we have no intention of doing anything like that”36. Later, some international activist organisations also reported that they had been blocked, such as the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in August 2008. The blocking of sites has provided the diaspora with a fresh opportunity to condemn the Ethiopian government for hampering free speech and human rights. Diaspora webmasters soon seized the opportunity to produce a black and red badge which is commonly posted on the front page with the Deibert R., Palfrey J. G., Rohozinski R. and Zittrain J. (eds.) (2008). Access denied. The practice and policy of global Internet filtering, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 35 Dismantled in October 2008 and later partially replaced by the new Government Communication Affairs Office. 36 ‘Ethiopia’s dictatorship blocks opposition web sites’, 20th June 2007, available at http://www.ethiopianreview.com (27th February 2009). 34 328 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia text ‘Blocked in Ethiopia’ – thus reinforcing the image of an authoritarian government eager to clamp down on any dissents. Reports of Internet repression in Ethiopia have subsequently entered a lot of press freedom annuals, as well as international resolutions towards Ethiopia. Sometimes, the accusations of Internet jamming have a rather mundane explanation, namely the slow Internet connection in Ethiopia37. Nevertheless, reports of specific sites which have been blocked are too many and too coherent to be a result of random technical errors. For instance, seven of the nine diaspora sites scrutinised in this study were inaccessible on ETC’s Internet networks when this chapter was finalised on Press Freedom Day, 3rd May 2009, and all these sites are critical of the government. In an attempt to retain a form of control over unwanted activities on the Internet, the Ethiopian government has gone so far as to pursue the diaspora by legal means. In 2005, selected media workers in the diaspora were accused of treason after they supposedly misused their media outlets to incite violence back in Ethiopia. Editors, Abraha Belai of Ethiomedia.com and Elias Kifle of Ethiopianreview.com, were initially charged in absentia, although the charges were later dropped as they lived abroad and could not be brought before an Ethiopian court. Local ‘correspondents’ for the websites living in Addis Ababa have also been confronted and, in early 2006, a stringer for Etiopianreview.com was detained for six weeks but later released without charge. The authorities are left somewhat powerless when confronted with the new media. They find coverage and commentaries in the diaspora media to be sensationalist, sometimes containing outright falsehood, and the writers are seen as political actors rather than professional reporters. They also realise that the diaspora has a considerable following in homeland Ethiopia, where the websites are an important information channel. By blocking the 37 On several occasions, the author has checked websites which claim to have been blocked in Ethiopia and found them to be accessible on the regular ISPs provided by ETC. Terje S. Skjerdal 329 sites, the government may achieve a certain degree of control of the alleged propaganda, but this control only reaches so far. Ethiopian Internet users are still able to access the closed sites through proxy servers. The multitude of sites is equally challenging; if ETC blocks some sites, there will always be others which resume the critical coverage — not to mention international news sites which pick up stories from the diaspora media and produce their own stories. In order to bypass the filtering, some diaspora media use mailing lists to send daily news directly to e-mail recipients, who, in turn, forward the content to their friends in Ethiopia should there be any significant information. The information society thus provides citizens with a number of vehicles for exchanging news and views behind the backs of official gatekeepers. The damaged reputation which it risks from the international community if it is associated with severe media control and censorship is also troubling for the government. Hence, repressive and semi-democratic governments have a hard time dealing with the disorders of the new media society. A Fertile Public Sphere – or not? The chapter opened with the assumption that the diaspora media represent an extension of the local public sphere because they provide Ethiopians, both home and abroad, with a new arena for exchanges in public. However, to what extent do the diaspora media actually represent an alternative and conducive type of public sphere for the Ethiopian people? To begin with, there has been some discussion about whether the African media actually can be said to accommodate a public sphere at all. Writing from a Kenyan perspective, Murej Mak’Ochieng concludes in the affirmative: yes, there is a (political) public sphere and the media account for a key part of it38. Others have looked into one of the prerequisites of 38 Mak-Ochieng M. (1996). ‘The African and Kenyan media as the political public sphere’, Communicatio, 22, 2, page numbers unknown. 330 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia the public sphere, namely the civil society, and asked whether such an entity in Africa exists, as it is understood from its Western origin39, or questioned the usefulness of the concept for African conditions40. The middle-of-the-road consensus, however, seems to be that one can speak about public spheres in Africa, but they have a different outlook than their Western counterparts and, obviously, different roots than Jürgen Habermas’ Enlightenment spheres41.42 The mediated public sphere in a semi-democratic context like Ethiopia has at least three challenges, pertaining to infrastructure, media proficiency and social laws. The infrastructure issue is obvious: only half of the country’s population own a radio set and far fewer possess a TV43. Heavily regulated, national radio and TV cover only an estimated 75 % and 45 % of the country respectively, although the projected expansion will be significant in the years to come. Newspapers are only read in the major cities, and no more than 1 % of the population use the print media on a regular basis. Media proficiency is another hindrance. For one thing, only 43 % of the population are literate (with fewer women than men), 39 Bratton M. (1994). ‘Civil society and political transition in Africa’, Institute for Development Research Reports, 11, 6, 21 pp. 40 Kasfir N. (1998). ‘Civil society, the state and democracy in Africa’, in N. Kasfir (ed.), Civil society and democracy in Africa. Critical perspectives, Frank Cass, London, pp.123–149. 41 Habermas J. (1989/1962). The structural transformation of the public sphere, Polity Press, Cambridge. 42 This view is propagated by, for example, Berger G. (2002). ‘Theorizing the mediademocracy relationship in Southern Africa’, International Communication Gazette, 64, 1, pp.21–45; Blankson I. A. (2002). ‘Re-examining civil society in emerging SubSahara African democracies: The state, the media and the public in Ghana’, Global Media Journal, American edition, 1, available at http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/ gmj/fa02/gmj-fa02-blankson.htm (2nd May 2009); and Esipisu I. and Kariithi N. (2007). ‘New media development in Africa’, Global Media Journal, African edition, 1, available at http://academic.sun.ac.za/gmja/academic/1%20New%20Media%20 Development%20in%20Africa.doc (2nd May 2009). 43 ‘Ethiopia: Media and opinion survey data for developing countries’ (InterMedia, Washington DC, 2005). Terje S. Skjerdal 331 but media proficiency also alludes to the degree to which media usage is a daily routine, which it is not for large segments of the Ethiopian population. Lastly, social laws render media participation highly uneven. The collective norms which reveal who is allowed to speak in public prevent many from voicing their concerns in the media and also delimit the type of issues that are acceptable for open discussion. All these factors considerably narrow the public sphere in mainland Ethiopia. Against this backdrop, the diaspora media could represent a long-desired expansion of the public sphere. It is beyond doubt that the diaspora media provide new venues for interaction as well as connect Ethiopian communities abroad with homeland Ethiopia, and Ethiopia with the international society. The diasporic new media are both vehicles of globalisation and ‘localization’. On a more critical note, however, the websites represent a rather small addition to the number of people participating in public debate. They tend to predominantly attract citizens who are already engaged in political discussion, thus creating a possibly increased gap between the information-rich and the information-poor. Moreover, the people making use of the diaspora media are mainly located outside of Ethiopia. Although it is difficult to provide exact audience profiles, such is the impression from participation in online forums, which are predominantly used by Ethiopians in the diaspora. Traffic statistics also point to a predominance of users in the North, with a typical 50–70 % share based in the US alone, according to Alexa traffic rankings (which need to be treated with caution because the counting technology probably favours North American users). Interestingly enough, even an Ethiopian-based site like Ethiopianreporter.com44 attracts more users in the diaspora than in mainland Ethiopia, if we are to believe Alexa: 14 % of the visitors log in using Ethiopian ISPs, while 66 % log in from the US. Even with possible statistical errors in mind, it is safe to say that diaspora websites are mainly used by Ethiopians abroad. 44 The website of the private newspaper Reporter, which comes out twice a week in Amharic and once a week in English. 332 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia The low access to the Internet in Ethiopia is, of course, also a delimiting factor: only an assumed 0.4 % of the population or 291,000 Ethiopians are Internet users45. The diaspora media claim to provide an alternative sphere for people who are otherwise not heard, as exemplified by Ethiosun.com’s slogan ‘Voice for the voiceless’ and Ethioquestnews.com’s ‘Empowering the voiceless’. The sole impression, however, is that the websites are primarily broadcasting the voices of some of the most vocal participants in Ethiopian political debate. Rarely are there interviews with ‘ordinary’ people and the contributors appear to be affluent in technology and knowledge. At the same time, the websites are clearly an alternative to the official media in Ethiopia, both politically and content-wise. As such they make up an alternative public sphere akin to the private newspapers in Ethiopia, but they do not represent a significant extension of the public sphere for Ethiopian citizens in general. Framing Ethiopia through the Diaspora Media The content on Ethiopian diaspora websites, as demonstrated earlier in the chapter, is largely inclined towards critical coverage of the incumbent government in Ethiopia. Optimistic, ‘economic growth’ stories are not regarded as newsworthy, creating a bleak contrast to the Ethiopian state media industry which is overwhelmed with sunshine journalism. However, the diaspora media do not only stand in contrast to the official media in Ethiopia, but also to the local private media, that is, some 37 local newspapers of which approximately 25 are oriented towards current affairs. It is not that the private media in Ethiopia are not critical, because quite a few of the outlets are fierce government critics on their op-ed pages, but that there is also a wider variety of stories in their reporting sections. To an 45 http://www.internetworldstats.com data, as of December 2008. Terje S. Skjerdal 333 extent, this is only to be expected – the local media have much easier access to firsthand sources than media outlets situated continents away from their primary object of reporting do. However, and this is a key hypothesis of the chapter, it appears that the diasporic media at large have set off a discourse of Ethiopian affairs that is largely detached from the conditions at home. Even if the persons behind the sites are recent migrants from Ethiopia and have solid knowledge of their homeland, the focus in their reports tends to be conflict-oriented and politicised. Getting an opinion through seems to be more important than ensuring accuracy in reporting. The result is that different media outlets may interpret events completely differently, depending on their political attachment. An illustrative example of such ‘diversity’ in reporting evolved with a demonstration that took place outside of Voice of America’s (VOA) headquarters in Washington DC on 14th November 2005. The demonstration comprised of Ethiopians who protested against the alleged anti-Ethiopian bias of VOA in Amharic news broadcasts. However, the diaspora websites could not agree on the stance of the protesters. According to Aigaforum. com, which is a pro-government site, 300 persons showed up to demonstrate against VOA, while another 50 disrupted the event and showed their support for the station. In contrast, Ethiopianreview.com, which was also present, reports that there were only 20 persons who demonstrated against VOA, and that some of these were actually embassy employees and security guards. The website reports that the demonstration was a “public relations disaster for the Meles regime”. Yet 400 persons expressed their support for VOA, according to Ethiopianreview.com. The two outlets covered the same event, but came out quite differently, according to their political preference. The example is interesting because it shows that even numerical data can be completely twisted in order to meet the political agenda of the media outlet. The language of the diaspora media is worthy of a study in itself. The choice of words serves to frame Ethiopia’s state of affairs in a certain way 334 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia in order to fuel a preferred discourse. In most of the diaspora media, words and phrases are used to augment conflict. ‘Regime’ is used instead of ‘government’; ‘dictatorship’ instead of ‘leadership’; ‘propaganda’ instead of ‘information’; and so forth. Ethiopianreview.com consistently uses line-through text (cross-out text) for ‘prime minister’ and replaces it with ‘dictator’ whenever Meles Zenawi’s name is mentioned. The site also crosses out ‘government’ and replaces it with ‘Woyane’, which has become a derogatory term for leaders from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)46. Oppositional newspapers in Ethiopia used to use the same term, but have moderated the language lately and now speak of ‘government’ or ‘EPRDF’. This is an indication that while the conflict-orientation has been downgraded in the local media in Ethiopia, it continues to be foregrounded in the diaspora media. In an analysis of the Ethiopian diaspora in North America, Terrence Lyons argues that the diaspora has played a key role in defining Ethiopian politics and conflicts over the last few years. Lyons observes that “conflictgenerated diasporas tend to be less willing to compromise and therefore reinforce and exacerbate the protractedness of homeland conflicts”. Moreover, he contends that these conflict-generated diasporas have a prominent role in “framing conflict issues and defining what is politically acceptable”47. We should continue by asking: framing conflict issues – for whom? Possible Interactions with the International Community It is debatable whether the diaspora has a direct bearing on the shaping of political opinions in the homeland, although pressure from diasporic Woyane originally means ’revolutionary’ or ‘revolution’. TPLF is one of four parties in the government coalition EPRDF. 47 Lyons T. (2007). ‘Conflict-generated diasporas and transnational politics in Ethiopia’, Conflict, Security and Development, 7, 4, p.529. 46 Terje S. Skjerdal 335 communities has been found to influence decisions on individual issues48. Citizens and media users in the homeland already face an array of opinions and unfolding events in their daily lives. Opinionated media input from outside, like that of diaspora websites, is perhaps more likely to be internalised by those already supporting the ideas or, alternatively, rejected by those who do not. Thus, in the case of the pro-Birtukan demonstration in Addis Ababa explained above, when citizens reacted to a news item in the diaspora media, they only brought to fruition attitudes already accepted and as such scarcely changed their convictions. In other words, one should presume that local audiences have a critical and sophisticated relationship with media messages from outside and use the local environment as a corrective. Corrective measures are far less available for external audiences, that is to say, the international community. A person in the North searching for information about current affairs in Ethiopia is likely to consult the Internet and will perhaps end up on one of the diaspora sites treated in this study since locally produced information about the country is so scarcely available. The result may be that the vernacular and attitudes of the diasporic media become reflected in articles, reports, policy documents and so forth with variable degrees of fact-checking and source criticism. It is, of course, virtually impossible to prove that the diaspora in this regard has an impact on policies and opinions in the international community, but it appears reasonable to assume that the less information is available about the country in question, the more important the role of the outlets that do exist is (such as diaspora media). A small illustration might be suggested from the Norwegian daily newspaper, Aftenposten, which used the offensive term ‘dictator’ in a news article to denote Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles 48 Such as in the case of the Eritrean diaspora influencing local authorities; Bernal, ‘Diaspora, cyberspace and political imagination’. 336 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Zenawi49. Aftenposten is not considered a radical newspaper at all, when it comes to such linguistic issues; quite the contrary, it is thought to be one of the most moderate newspapers in the Norwegian media market. Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s prime minister was suddenly equated with tyrants of the worst kind in the guise of factual attribution in a news article. The term is rarely used in Ethiopia, even among the most critical parts of the opposition, although certain diaspora sites have chosen to persistently label Meles Zenawi a dictator, as seen earlier. The incident in Aftenposten may illustrate how the ideas of the conflict-oriented diaspora are reflected in the international community. It is reasonable to think that online information concerning an under-communicated society like Ethiopia carries extra weight because few alternative information sources are available (or the alternative information exists in a local language which is inaccessible to the international public). This is in contrast to Zimbabwe, for instance, where there is, in fact, a variety of alternative information channels available to the international public, even though the press freedom situation is poor. The role of the diaspora media aimed at Zimbabwe is therefore different from the Ethiopian diaspora media: the diaspora media for Zimbabwe may be connoted with diversity50, but in the case of Ethiopia it is connoted with domination. The interviews with web editors do indeed indicate a symbiotic relationship between the diaspora media in Ethiopia and certain organisations in the international society. The diaspora feeds NGOs with facts and information about current events in Ethiopia, while the media outlets get access to news releases and reports in return. One informant corroborates, “Human rights groups such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders [RSF] etc. directly send their news releases to us for publication”. Gunnar Magnus and Sveinung Berg Bentzrød, ‘Regjeringen svikter Yara’, Aftenposten, 27th August 2005, available at http://e24.no/arkiv/article1103955.ece (3rd May 2009). 50 Nkosi Ndlela, ‘New ICT and social change in Southern Africa’, this volume. 49 Terje S. Skjerdal 337 Accordingly, the conflict-orientation of the politically active diaspora is reinforced in the public discourse. The diaspora news websites pose a challenge to the international community because they are a combination of news and views, and the distinction is not always clear. The selection of news stories is done according to what is perceived important by the diaspora; a comparison between diaspora sites and private media in Ethiopia indicates that there is no consensus on what is considered important news from and about Ethiopia. Jimmatimes.com, the only Ethiopian-based website treated in this study, provides an interesting comparison to the sites operated from Europe and North America. The site has a greater variety in the topics covered and is closer to local sources — as should be expected from an indigenous media channel – but the diversity in political coverage is also greater. In line with this, the editors experienced that the audiences were confused by the profile of the site when it opened in August 2007. Internet readers first accused Jimma Times of being pro-OLF then others took the opposite stance and accused it of being pro-OPDO/EPRDF. This illustrates how audiences expect the Ethiopian online media to be either for or against the ruling party and are unsure of how to deal with more independent political reporting. The diaspora media, on the other hand, are more easily identified as ‘for’ or ‘against’ – with Aigaforum.com being the only significant pro-government diaspora site among the many critical sites. It is necessary to say that there are also differences between the critical sites. On one end of the spectrum is Ethiopianreview.com, highly popular and renowned for its uncompromising reporting and commentary style. Its approach has generated discussion among the audience and the editor has more than once been accused of publishing hearsay without validation. To give but two examples, the site posted news about an Ethiopian helicopter which crashed in Somalia and a named Ethiopian professor who had died, both of which turned out to be untrue accounts. Editor Elias Kifle accepts no criticism for posting the stories and explains that, in the first case, he 338 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia simply referred to a post on the site’s forum, while, in the second case, he quoted concerns of a British diplomat. “Ethiopian Review is the most accurate news and opinion journal, even by Western standards,” claims the editor51. Such meta-discussion within the diaspora, in which the diaspora discusses its own role, often revolves around the strategy of the diaspora media. Indeed, not everybody is happy with the politicised editing style of many diaspora Internet sites. The signatory Alethia reports that his writings have been rejected by diaspora sites several times because his view did not fit in with the view of the editor. Alethia concludes, “It’s painful and absolutely perplexing to see censorship in action among Diaspora media while all of them are severe critics of the Ethiopian government for suppressing press freedom. Irony of ironies!”52 In contrast to Ethiopianreview.com and related sites, there are also outlets which use more modest language and are more open to contradicting views, despite still displaying a critical stance towards the Ethiopian government. Concluding Remarks: Consensual vs. Confrontational Media The dichotomous nature of the Ethiopian diaspora media reflects a wider discussion of the role of the diaspora in transnational politics. Two contrasting views seem to emerge regarding the normative function of the diaspora: one favouring confrontation and the other consensus. The confrontationminded are assisted by human rights groups and, specifically with regard to the diaspora media, press freedom organisations. The strategy is one Both items were removed when the editor learnt that they were untrue. Discussion available on Ethiopian Review’s discussion forum under thread ’Ethiopian Review is NOT blocked in Ethiopia’, posted 2nd January 2009 http://www.ethiopianreview.com/forum. 52 Alethia, ‘Truth and media ethics among the diaspora Ethiopians’, 21st January 2008, available at http://addisvoice.com/article/truth_and_media.htm (17th July 2008). 51 Terje S. Skjerdal 339 of relentless pressure on homeland authorities and employing the media aggressively to expose civil rights abuses and the like53. In contrast, the consensus approach starts by asking how conflict can be prevented. If not quite a peace-keeping force, the diaspora is then seen as a potent source of reconciliation and dialogue, partly by nurturing linkages between the homeland and the international community. Feargal Cochrane argues that the Irish diaspora in North America played such a role in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s54. From a media perspective, peace journalism builds on a similar philosophy55. Nicholas J. Cull, for one, is optimistic about the potential of the diaspora to conduct public diplomacy through blogs and the Internet56,57. From an African perspective, a few researchers have argued that the digital diaspora can successfully undertake a conflict prevention role via the Internet, like Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff, who writes from a Somali perspective58, and Kehbuma Langmia, writing from Marthoz J.-P. (2003). ‘To give sense to solidarity we need to give meaning to reality’, in M. Aguirre, F. Ferrándiz and J. M. Pureza (eds.), Before emergency: Conflict prevention and the media, University of Deusto, Bilbao, pp.23–34. 54 Cochrane F.(2007). ‘Civil society beyond the state: The impact of diaspora communities on peace building’, Global Media Journal, Mediterranean edition, 2, 2, pp.19–29. 55 Lynch J. and McGoldrick A. (2005), Peace journalism, Hawthorn Press, Stroud. 56 Cull N. J. (2008). ‘Public diplomacy: Taxonomies and histories’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616, pp.31–54. 57 More examples of cyberoptimism, in relation to the diaspora and national reconciliation around the world, could have been mentioned. To name one, Usha Sundar Harris highlights the potential of the Fiji virtual diaspora to repair the wounds of the May 2000 coup: “There is no doubt that online communication and engagement can now be extended in post-coup Fiji for purposes of reconciliation” (p.112). See Harris U.S. (2004). ‘From coconut wireless to the global knowledge society: Internet development in Fiji’, Convergence, 10, 2, pp.106–113. However, it appears that this, and other arguments for the reconciliatory role of the diaspora, could still use more empirical support. 58 Brinkerhoff J. M. (2006). ‘Digital diasporas and conflict prevention: The case of Somalinet.com’, Review of International Studies, 32, 1, pp.25–47. 53 340 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Cameroon59. Langmia argues that the Internet has become a democratic public sphere for Cameroonians abroad and that they use it to discuss meaningful change in the homeland. Turning to Ethiopia, however, it can hardly be said that the dominant Ethiopian diaspora websites are characterised by the same type of harmonious approach. ‘Change through contestation’ instead seems to be the motto. That the confrontation-minded aspect of the diaspora is the most visible and vocal is perhaps only to be expected. They are the ones who have something to gain. In addition, their bonds with NGOs and activist organisations in the international community can never be matched by pro-governmentalists, who prefer to take a back seat in the discussion. This leads, however, to a likely imbalance in the media frames that are passed on to the global community, stimulated by a selection of memories from within the conflict-generated diaspora. Moreover, as Bettina Conrad pointed out, in relation to the Eritrean diaspora, “memory in exile tends to be [...] ‘incomplete’, selective and dogmatic”60, implying that perceptions of the homeland continue to be re-negotiated in diaspora communities and by means of their media outlets. A further understanding of how these processes may also incorporate the international community ought to be disentangled by exploring the relationship between the diaspora media and international policies towards the country in question. This could, for instance, be done through comparative textual analyses of diaspora websites and policy documents by the international community, and a wider discourse analysis of views and attitudes in the North concerning the homeland. One should not be surprised if such a study concludes that 59 Langmia K. (2007). The Internet and the construction of the immigrant public sphere: The case of the Cameroonian diaspora, University Press of America, Lanham, MD. 60 P.252 in Conrad B. (2006). ‘Out of the ‘memory hole’: Alternative narratives of the Eritrea revolution in the diaspora’, Afrika Spectrum, 41, 2, pp.249–271. Terje S. Skjerdal 341 the international community has adopted more conflict-loaded images than people on the ground in the concerned country. The critical perspective adopted on the diaspora in this chapter might lead us to conclude that Ethiopians abroad would be better off promoting consensus rather than confrontation in their media outlets. However, it does not necessarily follow that consensus journalism is the obvious or logical conclusion to be drawn from the concerns expressed. There are at least three reasons for arguing the opposite. Firstly, a consensus approach may put journalistic professionalism in jeopardy by confusing reporters with civil servants, thus enticing the media to subdue facts and stories that are thought to interrupt the reconciliation process. Secondly, and related to the first reason, consensus-minded reporters are in no way a driving force for investigative reporting. Thirdly, and importantly, if the diaspora were told to seek consensus in their media practices, they would continue to feel muzzled and restricted, like they did back home. Some sort of confrontation is therefore unavoidable if one favours an open media climate; it is perhaps the very essence of good journalism to accept a certain degree of pain. However, acknowledging that disharmony is inherent to media communication is not the same as saying that negative reporting is the key. Quite the contrary, when confrontations are played out in the media, it becomes particularly important to obey a few basic rules to avoid manipulation. Opinion should be distinguished from fact. Facts should be checked before they are published. All parties should be given the chance to speak and so on. 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(2005). ‘Regjeringen svikter Yara’, Aftenposten, 27th August 2005, available at http://e24.no/arkiv/ article1103955.ece (accessed 3rd May 2009). ‘US State Department’s Human Rights Report for Ethiopia 2008’, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119001. htm (accessed 2nd May 2009). 346 A Critical Look at the Digital Diaspora: Perspectives from Ethiopia Acronyms CPJ CUD EPRDF ETC ETV ISP NGO OLF OPDO SMS TPLF VOA Committee to Protect Journalists Coalition for Unity and Democracy Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation Ethiopian Television Internet Service Provider Non-Governmental Organisation Oromo Liberation Front Oromo People’s Democratic Organization Short Message Service Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front Voice of America Editors/owners of the following websites were interviewed for the study: Site www.ethioforum.org www.ethiogermany.de www.ethioguardian.com www.etiomedia.com www.ethiomunich.com www.ethioquestnews.com www.ethiosun.com www.jimmatimes.com www.mahder.com Location Amsterdam, Netherlands Frankfurt, Germany Rotterdam, Netherlands Everett, Washington, USA Munich, Germany Toronto, Canada Alexandria, Virginia, USA Addis Ababa/Jimma, Ethiopia Brussels, Belgium Terje S. Skjerdal 347 Note: The only sites which were accessible in Ethiopia when this chapter was completed on Press Freedom Day 3rd May 2009 were Ethioquestnews. com and Jimmatimes.com (which would also be the least provocative sites in the eyes of the government). The others were, in all likelihood, filtered by the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation.