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   Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:04:00 JST Zecharias Zelalem

   "Ethiopia" reads the word in white. In letters only people more familiar with Africa might recognize.

   But I bet some of you here might recognize the orange pizza slice in this photo.

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:03:55 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     Ethiopia is one of the worst jailors of journalists in Africa, with 200+ journalists detained unjustly in the country since 2019. With such a hostile press atmosphere, the government opening up the space for Sputnik to operate is clearly because they've reached an agreement to avoid all hard hitting actual journalism, and disseminate propaganda.

     What worries me is the impact it may have on society with precious few independent outlets operating in Ethiopian languages.

     https://africanarguments.org/2024/06/in-abiys-ethiopia-200-journalists-have-been-arrested-since-2019/

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:03:56 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     Here are some samples of what I am told is news produced independently by Ethiopian staff at Sputnik.

     "Ukrainian intelligence is working to recruit and arm known terrorist organizations based in Syria."

     "The government of Mali slammed the UN for its failure to condemn Ukraine and hold Kiev accountable for its support of terrorist entities across Africa."

     pettter repeated this.
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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:03:57 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     At first all it did was hire translators to reproduce Sputnik's English content in Amharic. Now however, I've learned that it is training Amharic speakers to produce content that will fall inline with narratives friendly both to Addis Ababa and the Kremlin.

     For those working in human rights, this is a bad thing. Throughout the brutal wars that killed hundreds of thousands in Ethiopia since 2020, Russia VETOed anything brought up at the UNSC, which enabled Ethiopia to continue its onslaughts.

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:03:58 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     In May of last year, Sputnik signed a partnership agreement with Ethiopia's Fana Broadcasting Corporate, a local state media outlet. At the time, the two said they would work to share expertise and news, which I found astonishing considering that both regularly violate journalism ethics and are recognized as propaganda outlets.

     https://rossiyasegodnya.com/20230306/435464.html

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     Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social)'s status on Saturday, 28-Sep-2024 05:03:59 JST Zecharias Zelalem

     in reply to

     That's right! It's Russian state media. Sputnik is expanding its news service in the Amharic language.

     The Russian propaganda outlet, renowned for misinformation and being booted off social media platforms, wants to become a major news provider for Ethiopians. It has already set up an office in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, and plans to begin radio broadcasts soon.