Ethiopia's Media Proclamation No. 1238/2021

Proclamation No. 1238/2021, the Media Proclamation, was issued by the House of Peoples' Representatives and published in the Federal Negarit Gazette on 5 April 2021. It replaced the Broadcasting Service Proclamation No. 533/2007 and the media-related provisions of the Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation No. 590/2008, and transferred the rights and obligations of the former Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority to the newly established Ethiopian Media Authority. This analysis examines the Proclamation's architecture, its substantive rules, and the tensions inherent in its design. It does not assess the Proclamation against an ideal model of media regulation. It identifies what the law establishes, how its institutions are structured, where its rules are permissive, where they are restrictive, and where implementation depends on subordinate instruments.

The Proclamation establishes the Ethiopian Media Authority as an autonomous federal government agency with its own legal personality, accountable to the House of Peoples' Representatives. This accountability arrangement places the regulator under legislative rather than executive oversight, and the Proclamation expressly requires the Authority to be independent and free from interference, specifically naming the government, political parties, the media sector it regulates, religious institutions, and commercial and social groups. The Authority is governed by a Management Board of nine members, appointed by the House of Peoples' Representatives on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, with two members drawn from civil society, two from the media, two from institutions relevant to the media sector, and three from relevant government organs. The Board holds the power to refuse licence renewal and to suspend or revoke licences. The Director General is nominated by the government after selection by the Board and appointed by the House of Peoples' Representatives, serves a four-year term, and may not serve more than two terms. The Director General and Deputy Directors General must be free from political party membership. The Board's composition, which reserves three seats for government organs while allocating the remainder to non-state constituencies, reflects a balancing rather than a strict separation, and the Board's role as the final decision-maker on the most severe sanctions means that its independence is of practical consequence.  Please read the full details in the attachment.