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

History

ESAT was established on April 24, 2010 by a group of leading exiled journalists, most of whom were jailed, tortured or forced into exile, to provide accurate, objective and balanced news, analysis and information, perspective as well as entertainment, talk shows, documentaries, sports and cultural programming pertaining to Ethiopia and the rest of the world.

Programming

Content is mostly focused on political news from Ethiopia, but also covers some international news. The majority of broadcasts are in

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

(the federal language of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

) with some programs in

Afaan Oromo Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushiti ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. 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. 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. The station has long been linked with the

Ginbot 7 Ginbot 7 is an Ethiopian opposition political organization, founded in 2008 by Andargachew Tsige and Berhanu Nega. According to their mission statement, Ginbot 7's goal is "the realization of a national political system in which government power a ...

political opposition group, something that has not be verified by ESAT itself. Prior to moving to the Ethio 360 Media,

Habtamu Ayalew Habtamu Ayalew Teshome ( Ge'ez: ሀብታሙ አያሌው ተሾመ) is an Ethiopian journalist and political analyst who was formerly imprisoned and tortured as an opposition leader in Ethiopia during the EPRDF rule. He analyzes the daily live ...

contributed to the network.

Hate speech

In 2017, according to a ''

Horn Affairs Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

'' report, an ESAT journalist, Mesay Mekonnen, stated in a 6 August 2016 public broadcast by ESAT that the

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

(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 Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

of Tigrayans in order to destroy the TPLF.

References

{{reflist Television channels in Ethiopia Television channels and stations established in 2010 Television stations in Washington, D.C. Television news Satellite television International broadcasters Amharic language Oromo language