Search
  1. Home
  2. East Africa
  3. Ethiopia

Newspapers to shut down

    NAIROBI

    Private newspapers in Ethiopia have said they will stop publishing for one week when the country celebrates its new year on 11 September in protest at the rising costs of printing, news reports said on Tuesday. The reports said the decision had been taken at an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa on Saturday attended by more than 40 representatives of the Amharic language press and distributors of independent newspapers.

    “We want our cry of alarm to be heard, for Ethiopians to understand the situation, for the government, which is responsible to react so that the private press does not die, and for the international community to grasp the extent of the problem,” Kifle Mulate, head of the Ethiopian Free Journalists’ Association (EFJA) was quoted as saying. Criticising a 30.5 percent hike in printing costs in mid-August, the EFJA has written to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi requesting the abolition of taxes on newsprint. The news reports said a sports paper, ‘Kicker’, and a political paper, ‘Meyisaw’, have already stopped printing because of the hike.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join