Eritrean News - assenna

The PFDJ authorities are experts at choosing fancy names and slogans. It is not through policies, but with this kind of propaganda tactics that they attempt to still or manipulate the hearts and minds of the Eritrean people. Every year they come up with new slogans while the country, to say the least, is in a chronic condition with regard to its social, economic and political development.

The festivals in particular are fertile venues for this repugnant habit. I do not have much problem with the seasonal lies though. They only last for a few months before and after the event. Similarly, the loathing one has towards them grows fainter, not because they give sense with time but they fade away themselves for they are hollow and shallow.

“Serving the Truth”: The slogan of the Eritrean Television (ERI TV), however, is the most repulsive one. First of all, it doesn’t ‘serve’ the truth other than starving it. Secondly, it never changes in the fashion the others do. Despite the packed, routine lies of Eri TV, it is right on the screen on permanent basis. This irritates me, as it certainly does to many rational Eritreans.

If Italy is the country, which has witnessed the most unusual speedy replacements of its prime ministers and governments (if I am not mistaken, 25 in 50 years, one in every two years on average) Eri TV is the television channel, which has seen constant changes in its anchors and newsreaders.

This has nothing to do with dynamism. Italy’s experience is probably an indication of its shaky political venture, which seems omnipresent in the country, while the occurrence in Eri TV, without doubt is a reflection of its awful media practice.

Editorial independence is non-existent, even in the slightest form. The media is a mouthpiece of the government. No matter how intelligent they are, the journalists working for the TV station and the whole media house are considered as human machines by the authorities. They are there to say what the regime wants to be said, not to say what they see on the ground and what the people want to hear. They are severely strained, and are supposed to function as microphones at the government’s arms length.

If not all, many of the journalists could not withstand the clash between their conscience and the heavy handedness of the PFDJ bosses. That is why most of the veteran journalists have ended up in exile.

I am not commenting on this because I saw this funny slogan right now. However, the comical announcement of the (acting or whatever) Minister of Information, which I recently heard prompted me for reaction. I did not simply want this bushy dog story to go by unnoticed. In his deliberation at the ‘Conference of Eritrean Ambassadors in Massawa, on 19 January 2007, “ Mr. Ali underlined that presently Eritrean media outlets, despite limited capacity, are carrying out their activities as a global voice”
(http://www.shabait.com/staging/publish/article_006057.html)

what a joke!!

No body cares about the impact this insult may have on the ‘ambassadors’, who already are willing accomplices of the exceptionally repressive government. This statement is however, salt on injury for the Eritrean people.

How on earth is it possible for a state, which is on the record for being “ the biggest prison for journalists”, in the entire African continent, to become a “global voice”? Worse than that, how can a media establishment claim it serves the truth, despite the fact that it is unable to confirm or deny the deaths of those imprisoned journalists? If the Eritrean media has really turned out to be a ‘global voice’ while condemning the entire population to live in a state of fear of unspeakable proportion, it is a miracle; a serious blunder too.

Anyway, this is a joke that does not hold water. Jokes are obviously told to entertain and make people laugh, except in the PFDJ land where they conversely make people cry. I am absolutely certain that the tears of the humble people of Eritrea will not be worthless. There will come a day in which Eritreans will be amused by jokes as any other people. Until such time though, “Starving the Truth” would be the appropriate slogan for Eri TV.


Amanuel Eyasu
21/02/07