Ethiopia’s Media Authority Suspends The Reporter Indefinitely, Accusing the Three Decade Old Paper of Content Against “National Interests”

Ethiopia’s Media Authority Suspends The Reporter Indefinitely, Accusing the Three Decade Old Paper of Content Against “National Interests”

November 3, 2026

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The front page of the Amharic Reporter’s Sunday, Nov. 1 edition, the last before the suspension, led with a report that the South Radio and Television Agency faces the threat of closure. Image: Reporter (Media and Communication Center) via Eshete Bekele (@EsheteBekele) on X

Ethiopia’s media regulator has suspended The Reporter, one of the country’s oldest independent newspapers, for an indefinite period, accusing its Amharic and English papers and their websites of publishing content that it says runs against Ethiopia’s “national interests.” The Ethiopian Media Authority announced the decision on Monday, Nov. 2, and said it took effect the same day, though some outlets gave the date as Nov. 3.

In a statement posted on its social media pages, the authority said more than a year of monitoring the content of Media and Communication Center PLC, which publishes the Amharic Reporter, the English language The Reporter and the Ethiopian Reporter website, had found “repeated violations of law and professional ethics,” Addis Standard reported. The authority accused the papers of sensationalizing sensitive political, social and economic issues starting from their headlines, of presenting information from national forums and reports in a selective way that created “suspicion and confusion among the public,” and of spreading distorted information that it said harmed foreign investment, tourism and diplomacy, tarnished the country’s image and damaged national security. It also accused them of carrying “unbalanced and biased” reports, AFP reported. The authority said it had talked with the owner and the editors in chief several times over the past year and had issued a final warning, and it ordered that the paper “remain fully suspended from publication and broadcasting indefinitely … until legal and professional ethical obligations are fully met.” The statement did not cite any specific article, The Abay Times noted.

The publisher received no letter about the suspension and heard about it from other media, Wazema Radio reported on Monday, citing its sources. The same sources told Wazema that the authority had sent the publisher a nine page media monitoring report a few days earlier, but that the report only listed general strengths and weaknesses in the paper’s content and singled out nothing in particular. Wazema also said it had learned that senior officials of the South Ethiopia regional government threatened and warned the paper after the Amharic Reporter’s Sunday edition ran a report saying the South Radio and Television Agency’s survival was in danger. That story, headlined “The South Radio and Television Agency is said to face the threat of closure,” led the front page the paper posted on its website two days before the ban, DW Amharic reported. The Reporter had not publicly responded by Monday afternoon, The Abay Times said, and the paper’s two X accounts had posted nothing since Monday morning.

The Reporter was founded by the journalist Amare Aregawi and has been published for about three decades under the motto “Free Press, Free Speech, Free Spirit.” Until Monday it was the only private Amharic newspaper still being published in Ethiopia, New Business Ethiopia reported.

The suspension is the latest in a string of moves by Abiy Ahmed’s government against the press. The authority, whose head is appointed by parliament, revoked the licence of the independent outlet Addis Standard in February, a decision Addis Standard has appealed, and in June the authorities expelled the correspondent of the French daily La Croix, AFP said. Wazema Radio said in January that it had handed back its own licence on the authority’s order, according to The Abay Times, and the authority has permanently revoked the licences of DW’s correspondents in the Amhara and Tigray regions, DW Amharic said. Reporters Without Borders ranks Ethiopia 148th of 180 countries in its press freedom index and says five journalists are detained in the country, four of whom have been held for nearly three years on terrorism charges that carry the death penalty. Media professionals and rights advocates have long called for an end to pressure on the media in Ethiopia, DW Amharic said, yet partial and indefinite bans on outlets and journalists have continued.

Ethiopian journalists and readers reacted on X through Monday and Tuesday. Eshete Bekele (@EsheteBekele), who describes himself as an Ethiopian journalist and radio producer, wrote that Ethiopia had “suspended the last surviving private Amharic newspaper, along with its English publication and online outlets,” and added, “It’s another blow to media freedom. The Reporter served for more than three decades, a full generation.” Bethlehem Negash (@BethlehemNeg), whose bio says she is a former editor at the Ethiopian Reporter, wrote in Amharic, “There is no one who worked at Reporter who is not proud of it. It is a place where very professional work is done.” Sileshi Yilma Reta (@Sileshiyilma), who calls himself a media and communication enthusiast, wrote in Amharic that Reporter, “which in yesterday’s edition reported on its front page that the South Radio and Television Agency was facing the threat of closure,” had itself been fully suspended from all printing and broadcasting. Meseret Tesfaye (@messo_te) wrote, “Reporter newspaper too has been suspended to protect ‘national security’! National security is not protected by shielding the government from criticism! A free media is one of the main foundations that strengthen a country’s security.” The account Agafari (@Tesafari) wrote in Amharic, “This is not a matter of liking Amare Aregawi and his crew. Reporter is a pioneering, well-organized paper with good and lasting print circulation. Its time as a guardian of the throne in the Woyane era is not forgotten. I will never support its being gagged!” The Arabic language Africa news platform Ain Africa (@AinAfrica) led its post with “After three decades in print, Ethiopia stops the independent Reporter newspaper indefinitely.” Zegabi found no posts in Tigrigna about the suspension.

Sources