Meaza birru biography of george

By most accounts, Meaza Birru is patient. Not easily daunted, she waited eight years to have a commercial radio station – the first in Ethiopia.

Ms.

Meaza began regular programming on her radio station last week, one of only two people to get FM radio licenses from the Ethiopian government since it legalized commercial radio in 1999.

In a country that has one of the most tightly controlled presses in the world, some skeptics think the issuance of the two radio licenses is no more than a token gesture by the government.

Press freedom has deteriorated sharply here in the past five years, along with political freedom, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and the Washington-based Freedom House.

Nonetheless, some free-press supporters in Ethiopia, too, see the move as a potential watershed.

Tafari Wossen, a leading communications consultant, says the new private radio stations – even