ESAT

ESAT
Country	Ethiopia
Network	Television network
Slogan	The Ethiopian Peoples' Eye and Ear
Headquarters	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ; Washington D.C., United States
Programming
Picture format	576i (HDTV), 16:9)
Ownership
Owner	The Ethiopian Satellite Television & Radio (ESAT)
Key people	Andargachew Tsige (CEO)
History
Launched	April 24, 2010
Links
Website	ethsat.com

Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) is an Ethiopian satellite news network headquartered in Washington D.C., United States.[1][2] It is a nonprofit and independent media outlet mostly privately funded by donors from the broader Ethiopian diaspora.

History

The channel was founded on April 24, 2010 by three Ethiopian journalists in London with the objective of providing free access to news and information to Ethiopians at home and abroad.

Programming

Content is mostly focused on political news from Ethiopia, but also covers some international news. The majority of broadcasts are in Amharic (the federal language of Ethiopia) with some programs in Afaan Oromo and English. It has studios located in Washington D.C., Amsterdam and London (UK). In addition to a satellite and online TV service, ESAT also added a daily radio broadcast in September 2011.

Political significance

ESAT from its inception was a source of contrary voices highly critical of the Ethiopian government.[3] It was one of the pivotal media organizations reporting on anti-government protests that swept across Ethiopia starting in 2015 and lasting until 2018. There were one of many media organization banned and charged in absentia for inciting violence and promoting acts of terror by the Ethiopian Government. The charges were dropped in late May or early June 2018.[1] The station has long been linked with the Ginbot 7 political opposition group, something that has not be verified by ESAT itself.[4]

Hate speech

In 2017, according to a Horn Affairs report, an ESAT journalist, Mesay Mekonnen, stated in a 6 August 2016 public broadcast by ESAT that the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) domination of Ethiopia was that of "a small minority ethnic group, representing five percent of the Ethiopian population, who wants to rule Ethiopia subjugating others" and that "the solution for what we are facing at this time is 'drying the water so as to catch (kill) the fish.'" Horn Affairs interpreted the statement as a call for genocide of Tigrayans in order to destroy the TPLF.[5]

References

"Ethiopia's Ginbot 7 opposition movement suspends armed resistance". BBC News. June 22, 2018.
Endeshaw, Dawit (December 29, 2018). "FAKE NEWS ALERT". The Reporter.
Jeffrey, James (December 10, 2017). "Does KANA TV signal more media freedom?". aljazeera.
Miftah, Mukerrem (November 5, 2018). "Op:Ed: Ethiopia in transition is facing critical challenges". Addis Standard.
Wolqait, Zeray (2017-08-23). "ESAT Radio and Television: The Voice of Genocide". Horn Affairs. Archived from the original on 2020-12-16. Retrieved 2020-12-16.

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[:0-1] "Ethiopia's Ginbot 7 opposition movement suspends armed resistance". BBC News. June 22, 2018.

[2] Endeshaw, Dawit (December 29, 2018). "FAKE NEWS ALERT". The Reporter.

[3] Jeffrey, James (December 10, 2017). "Does KANA TV signal more media freedom?". aljazeera.

[4] Miftah, Mukerrem (November 5, 2018). "Op:Ed: Ethiopia in transition is facing critical challenges". Addis Standard.

[HornAffairs_ESAT_voice_genocide-5] Wolqait, Zeray (2017-08-23). "ESAT Radio and Television: The Voice of Genocide". Horn Affairs. Archived from the original on 2020-12-16. Retrieved 2020-12-16.