Communications in Ethiopia

Printed religious books written in Ge'ez (printed in Europe) were distributed in the 1600s in Tigray. Domestic printing press work began in 1863 by Swedish and Italian missionaries. Newspapers began printing in the mid-1880s. In 1890, Italians began printing El Eritereo and in 1891 the publishing company Corriere Eritreo was launched. In 1905, a Amharic and French newspaper, Le Semeur d'Ethiopie, began printing in Harar. In 1912, a newspaper in Tigrinya called Melkite Selam was launched.

In 1896, Emperor Menelik had Desta Mitiké write by hand a newspaper called YeBeir Dimts and then distributed carbon copies of this newspaper around the palace. The first government newspaper was Aimro and it began publication on January 17, 1901. The creation of the Amharic newspaper was ordered by Emperor Menelik. A Greek businessman, Andreas E. Kavadia, edited the newspaper. In 1906 the Ethiopian Government Printing Press was opened.

On January 1, 1925 Berhanena Selam was launched. The annual subscription rate was 5 birr and it was published on Thursdays.

Following the liberation of the country from Italian occupation during World War II, Emperor Haile Selassie established the newspaper Addis Zemen on June 7, 1941.

Current Ethiopian newspapers can be broadly divided into two categories. Ethiopia based and Diaspora based with the majority of the Diaspora based relying solely on digital newspapers. The most widely circulated newspapers are Addis Fortune, Capital Ethiopia, Ethiopian Reporter, and Ethiopian Herald.

The sole internet service provider is EthioTelecom. There are about 4,300,000 people who can access internet at their home. It is harder to estimate the number of people who access the internet through internet café's which are much more popular and affordable.

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