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Harsh Lessons For a Young Association http://www.atse-yohannes-high.org/ Recently Dejen Radio (DR) on its weekly newscast (on April 19th,2003 of its radio program) opened with an inexcusable tone of commentary over the formation of Atse Yohannes Alumni Association (AYAA). The radio program devoted a few minutes of its airtime in painting a negative image about this young association. It reported that the formation of AYAA was mainly the work of the invisible hand of Sebhat Nega to divide Tigrians. The AYAA unequivocally and categorically deny DR’s allegation and such kind of slanted and malicious reporting appalls’ us. It is completely uncalled for DR to label AYAA as being a tool for the Ethiopian government. Only someone with a tunnel-visioned knowledge of our association, and looking to wrap himself in a quick cloak of concerned Tigraway, can call for the destruction of our young alumni association. The radio reporting makes a better case for strong training at journalism schools than for the destruction of our association. The mission of our association clearly states that our association is non-governmental, non-political and an independent association. No more no less, that is exactly what it is and what it will be in the future. Moreover, our members are committed to helping our alma mater find solutions to its problems, and many of us will directly engage in the search for solutions. The notion that our association is used as an instrument of division among Tigrians by the Ethiopian government amounts to an offensive insult to the association’s board members’ and general members’ intelligence, divorced from the genuine desires of the association’s members, thus more of a paranoid gossip than truth. Although DR would like to blame our association in dividing our people, the real problem is DR’s effectiveness in journalistic reporting. Time and again DR failed to get to know our association by not contacting our association. Unreflective, DR chose to run the story of the formation of our association based on one Seattle resident’s impression without contacting us to verify the story. The big question is: Is DR shrewd enough to tell the genuine from the charlatan? In order to avoid the conclusion that DR was unfair and biased—though we believe it was--we contacted DR and asked repeatedly whether or not the newscaster thought the journalistic treatment of AYAA had been fair. Stubbornly DR saw no reason to correct the story and the confusion it is creating among its audience. It was a story the newscaster had begun to weave from the moment AYAA’s name emerged. Nothing that was said or done after contacting the newscaster by our board member added anything or subtracted anything from the negative picture. AYAA never got an updated second look and it is really sad for journalism. Those who wish our association’s destruction are in fact demanding that all grass root organizations should be harnessed to their own particular political doctrine of the public good. Their self-righteous assumption that one association is proper for some groups but not for Atse Yohannes alumni is worrisome at best. We, however, are not interested in such doctrine; what we are interested is in providing a wonderful environment in the academic lives of our current and future students of Atse Yohannes. From our perspective, DR’s treatment of AYAA is contributing substantially to the very characteristics DR so gravely condemns in its weekly program. The painful and admittedly frustrating struggle in trying to organize an alumni association for the past ten years unequivocally invalidates Dejen Radio’s unfounded allegation of our association. By virtue of experiencing the battle for the formation of our association year and after year (since the early 1990’s) in political trenches, we are as qualified as anyone to discern the verdict on the direction of our association. It is unfortunate that our hard won victory of forming an association based on our independent and free individual spirit is not what some people have in mind when they are ringing the bells of “democracy” and “freedom.” Whatever their motivations are, their allegation rested on the illusion that the will of the members of our association are going to be broken by their allegations. In drastic variance with their illusion, this experience will stiffen our resolve in supporting our alma mater. We believe in a more patient, more cautious, more open-minded, more balanced and more thorough kind of reporting in cultivating a well-informed audience. There can be neither snappy nor paranoid judgments about journalistic reporting. We also understand that it takes time to suspend a journalist’s biases and beliefs. The length of time, in turn, might depend on the journalist’s ability to learn from past mistakes and his requisite ability to judge human beings as source of evidence. |