As part of our news analysis slot on Africanews, we will be updating a media watch page that deals with major issues of media ongoings across the continent.
It will cut across happenings in mainstream and across social media with also a special eye for fake news. Ethiopia and Sudan kick start our media watch page.
Security-related internet cut in Western Oromia
Reports indicate that there is a partial internet cut across several towns in western Ethiopia. The development has been in place since Monday.
The move is believed to be in connection with rising insecurity in western Oromia regional state where the army continues to battle a former rebel group. Over a dozen officials of the region have been killed in the last few months.
The BBC adds that “in some areas mobile call services are also not working.” The state monopoly EthioTelecom has yet to comment publicly on the situation.
The outfit twice last year cut the internet; first over national level examinations and in the wake of a foiled coup plot that claimed the then army chief Seare Mekonnen and high-profile officials of the Amhara regional state.
The BBC quoted an Ethio Telecom official as saying the company could not comment on the issue right away but would provide an official statement soon.
Sudan bans pro-Bashir media outlets
Over in neighbouring Sudan, the state continues to squeeze media outlets affiliated with ousted president Omar Al-Bashir. Two two newspapers and two television were affected by the measure.
Al-Sudani and Al-Ray Al-Am newspapers and Ashrooq and Teeba television stations were banned for allegedly receiving funding from al-Bashir, AFP news agency has reported. The punishment was meted down by a committee tasked with dismantling institutions linked to the former leader.
“These institutions were funded by the state and we want to return the money to the Sudanese people,” Mohamed al-Fekki, a member of Sudan’s transitional ruling council, is quoted as saying.
But editor-in-chief for the Al Sudani, Diaa al-Din Belal rejected the allegations in an interview with AFP: “We operate under a private company and we did not receive any funds from a party or a government authority,” Belal said.
This is the latest leg of a move to dismantle the deep state Bashir put in place over the three decades he served as president. His political party was banned last year despite protests. He is currently serving jail time over corruption charges.
Other criminal cases are pending against him. He was ousted by the military last April after mass protests which broke out in December 2018. The protesters remained in the streets till later in the year when a deal was reached with the military junta for a three-year transition.