Session on ‘Media, Fake News and Realities: Trilateral Battles in Comprehending Eritrea’ concluded

Session on ‘Media, Fake News and Realities: Trilateral Battles in Comprehending Eritrea’ concluded

By Nolawi Mehari

A three days session on the trends and impacts of Media on Eritrea’s affair, status of the country, current challenges and future expectations, concluded on 31 December of 2017. In this session, which was organized by Efros Trading Partner, HorMid Media and Art Center, Asmara Spices Consultation Inc. and Afro-Arab Alliance, twelve papers were presented to participants.

Organized as part of welcoming the year of 2018, the conventions in Asmara, Khartoum and San Francisco, discussed on papers by citizens’ and foreign partners on Media and Eritrea, the incident of fake-news, social media and their consequential impacts, government foreign missions expectation to empower their media and diplomatic missions thus to deplete then intensity of anti-Eritrea images, the phenomenon of global immigration within global context and other topics, were presented by respective researchers and media experts.

“Gulf Medias and Iran-Israel Phenomenon: From Maariv Daily to Aljazeera and Eritrea Profile” was presented by Marcel Claxton, a former volunteer and VSO teacher at Keih Bahri Senior Secondary School from 2003-2004 in Asmara. “For media hubs, there are permanent benefits not permanent friends; why the one time media giant which responded to fake-news by Maariv Daily of Israel on the presence of Iranian bases on Eritrea—Aljazeera—has now resorted its muzzles eccentrically is not amazing. Remembering BBC’s hardliners stance on Margaret Thatcher left us with great lessons how media can operate at skewed lenses there by to zoom-in, magnify more, aims of their financiers and owners,” Claxton clarified at the Hotel Union Square session in San Francisco on December 29 of 2017.

In Khartoum where invited students from Open University took part at Al Salam Rotana restaurant, a discussion paper entitled “Trust Us, the Game of Fabricating News in Horn Africa: Jimma Times on Eritrea,” was presented on December 30 of 2017 by Dr. Hamid Elwasie and Fenkil Tewelde. In the paper, Dr. Hamid and Fenkil elaborated that the mission of fake news took Eritrea until Bangladesh and alleged it of supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers).

“Fake or misleading news didn’t pervert only individuals insights; over that, it has starting reshaping strategies implementers’ formulae at national level. When Jimma Times, intentionally, claimed that Asmara is assisting the Tamil Tiger belligerents in 2009, the false rituals didn’t stop there. Based on such claims, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (USSFRC) continued citing Eritrean as provider of direct military assistance, including light aircraft to Tamil Tigers during the 2002–03 thereby to blockade any negotiation with the Sri Lankan government via the Norwegian mediators.

“As Eritrea was in deep quagmires of hatred policies toward Norway, the country continued meddling in Bangladesh affairs thus to slam Norway’s efforts negatively,” we read. “This then led to, spearheaded by Asia Tribune, to massive media campaigns, an incident that epitomized the Red Sea country name in South East Asia as source of threat and instability. We are witnessing the same currently; mesmerizing to me, none of the allegations have since been verified,” Fenkil elaborates.

“Eritrea: The Media Narrations Empirical Experience and Opening New Era,” was the title Executive Director of the Nairobi based HorMid Media and Art Center, Yosief Abraham Z, chose in discussion with youths from Asmara at Red Sea auditorium in Massawa on December 31 of 2017. “The Information Ministry has, as I am managing, is showing the desire for more apparent national objectives. Working on how to voice even the known problems of the society has to be reinforced. If residents in Asmara stated why there are transport problems in the cosmopolitan city, this hasn’t any connection with images of Eritrea; it is an ordinary question. If the governments provided with about 208 buses to the city and are currently operating 78 buses only, then the responsible agent has to respond to the voice of the residents. Undoubtedly, this is the work of the Ministry of Information; there are also other similar nationally interesting topics our media and we have to do for our excellence,” he affirmed.

“Think a ‘closed’ country and lead it to bleed,” by Hannah Alper, “How fake news makes a country star of the galaxy: Eritrea’s multi-facets profiles,” by Salaam Kibreab, Dutton Adult’s “Selections on Eritrea’s coverage from 1992-1998: How media suddenly derailed to Addis-Ababa” and other six additional papers were presented on different days in different three cities. After gathering constructive comments and agreed on ways to organize more similar conventions, organizers announced initiatives--in collaboration with Notion Press--to publish the papers in recent times.

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Nolawi Mehari is a writer on politics and strategies of Horn Africa and Middle East. You can contact him nolawi-hme@hushmail.com

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