Media Practitioners’ Responses to Control Measures and Their Impact on Ethiopia's Media After the 2018 Reforms

The political reforms in Ethiopia in 2018 raised hopes for media freedom and democratic openness. Reforms created opportunities, yet practitioners face political pressure, legal restrictions, economic challenges, and institutional influence. Despite attention to Ethiopia's post-reform media, little research examines practitioners' responses to controls and effects on practice. Drawing on Agency Structure Theory, the study explores practitioners' responses and implications for Ethiopia's post-2018 media environment. It draws on 24 in-depth interviews in 2024 with journalists, editors, media managers, scholars, and professional-association representatives. It analyzes 300 news reports (2018–2023) from six national media organizations: EBC, Addis Zemen, Addis Admas, Ethiopian Reporter, Sheger FM, and ESAT. Findings identify six responses: submission to the system, fearless resistance, seeking advocacy and support, legal action, fighting in exile, and adaptive strategies. These responses show journalists negotiating structural constraints and professional agency. Some accommodate pressure through self-censorship and institutional compliance; others pursue resistance, advocacy, legal action, exile journalism, or adaptive survival. The study argues practitioners are neither passive victims of control nor fully autonomous actors. Their responses reflect interactions between structural conditions and individual agency. Highlighting practitioners' experiences in political transition, the study informs debates on media freedom, journalistic agency, and media reform in emerging democracies.