Journalism in Transition: Navigating Threats and Resilience in Ethiopia after the 2018 Political Reform

This study examined the threats to the safety and security of journalists following the 2018 political reform in Ethiopia. The primary threats to journalists’ safety, and the coping mechanisms developed to mitigate these threats, are explored. Employing a qualitative research approach, the study used in-depth interviews for data collection. A snowball sampling technique was employed to recruit 24 journalists with firsthand experience of attacks, harassment, and threats. The findings indicated that journalists encounter a range of physical, psychological, digital, health-related, and economic threats, influenced by factors at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Furthermore, despite the absence of explicitly formulated safety and security guidelines endorsed by media institutions, shaping professional identity and role perception, establishing and maintaining social connections, strengthening religious attachments, normalising harassment and violence, resorting to silence, and, in severe cases, abandoning the profession are the identified mitigation approaches.