African Media House Crucial to Portray True Image of Africa: Scholars

Addis Ababa February 10/2022/ENA/  If it is possible to establish a media house which serves Africa, it would play vivid role in withstanding negative influences of powerful countries, scholars said.

Approached by ENA, Samson Mekonen, Addis Ababa University Journalism and Communication Department lecturer,  said most of the Western countries use their media to reflect their interests and instill ideas through them.

Therfore, enabling Africa to own its organ would help to depict the true images of Africa which has been portrayed negatively by these bodies, he added.

He specifically mentioned media institutions like CNN, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, and AFP which portray the continent negatively to meet the agendas they are given.

To correct such biased reports on Africa and to show the true image of the continent, African media and journalists have huge responsibility in their hands, the scholar stated.

Citing the misinformation that negatively impacted the continent, he stressed the need for African media house which reports African affairs appropriately and challenges the pressure of the powerful countries.

Highlighting the unwarranted pressure and various moves on Ethiopia by some western actors, Samson said the West mainly used their giant media to attack the country.   

Establishing and realizing influential continental media house is therfore critical to counter such baseless and biased disinformation campaigns on the continent.

Similarly, Anteneh Tsegaye, Addis Ababa University Journalism and Communication lecturer  said that the recent coordinated media campaign on Ethiopia is not intended to attack only one nation rather the continent.

He added that Africa as a continent needs its own media house that can voice and depict its interest at the world stage.

In his remarks during the opening of the AU summit of heads of state and government in Addis Ababa last Saturday, PM Abiy Ahmed said the continent has always been portrayed by the Western media as a country of civil wars, corruption and hunger.  

“Telling our own stories and shaping our own narratives must (therfore) be our top priority. In this regard, I would like to propose to this august body the establishment of an African Union Continental Media House.”