By our staff reporter
A compilation of briefing papers on the media sector development in Ethiopia gets disseminated courtesy of Protecting Independent Media For Effective Development (PRIMED), in collaboration with IMS Ethiopia.
During the booklet dissemination workshop which was held on Thursday August 17, those who were involved on the development of the paper converged to discuss issues pertinent to the findings.
The workshop which was organized to disseminate the findings of the studies was commissioned by the PRIMED programme which sought to contribute to deepening the understanding about what factors are most effective in enabling locally driven coalitions to emerge and thrive through externally supported media development efforts.
As showcased, the booklet included briefing papers that analyzed the state of media in Ethiopia and gave insights in coalition building, conflict-sensitive journalism, and safety of journalists.
According to IMS, the briefing paper presents findings from studies funded by the PRIMED programme to discuss why conflict-sensitive journalism is important in facilitating conflict reduction and the peace process and in informing future interventions in promoting conflict-sensitive journalism in Ethiopia.
The briefing paper based its analysis on a rapid assessment of conflict-sensitive journalism and the findings of a study on media coalition-building efforts.
Currently, IMS Ethiopia is leading the PRIMED’s ‘Coalitions for Change’ workstream and managing support for coalition building. Since 2021, IMS has been supporting dialogues and coalition-building activities, which brought Ethiopian media into dialogue with media and policymakers on media policy reforms and actors into closer cooperation in media policy reforms.
It also supported a series of dialogues and coalition-building initiatives and worked with different media associations, government, and other civil society organizations and helped initiate and create coalitions of Ethiopian media actors on matters of common concern, such as journalists’ safety, security, and protection.
IMS also commissioned studies, assessments and learning briefs which have been reviewed by independent reviewers and subject matter experts and validated in stakeholder validation workshops. The briefing papers that were disseminated as part of the dissemination workshop were part of these activities.