Freebies and Brown Envelopes in Ethiopian Journalism

Abstract

This article discusses the practices of freebies

Pathways of Global Cultural Diffusion: Mass Media and People's Moral Declarations about Men's Violence against Women

“…In the words of one journalist interviewed by Harris (2017:136) Manda and Kufaine (2013) explain how journalists' justification of such "brown bag" payments is evident in how they refer to them in Chichewa, chimpondamthengo, which is the same term for voluntary "thank you" donations given to Malawian herbalists (who usually do not explicitly require formal payments for their herbal good luck charms). Similar practices are common in many other countries where journalists are paid very little and foreign aid organizations are especially powerful (Lodamo and Skjerdal 2009).…”

Per Diem Payments as a form of Censorship and Control: The Case of Guinea-Bissau’s Journalism

“…Either referred to as cash for coverage (Kruckeberg and Tsetsura 2003;Ristow 2010) or gift acceptance (Onyebadi and Alajami 2014), since these incentives can be more than just monetary, the phenomenon is explained as not new or geographically exclusive (Sanders 2003;Lodamo and Skjerdal 2009;Ristow 2010;Elahi, 2013). In most cases, the practice is generally known as brown envelope syndrome, in an allusion to the brown envelopes with money that are secretly given by the sources to journalists on a reporting assignment, although in many cases this payment does not come necessarily in a brown envelope.…”

“…A similar connotation comes from the Swahili "mshiko", received by Tanzanian and Kenyan journalists to endure the time spent attending to a press conference. If an event will not provide these compensations, Ethiopian journalists call it "derek tabiya", translated as "dry location"; and journalists who, for moral reasons, will not accept brown envelope payments are called "wogami", meaning deviant or conservative, and are seen as a minority (Lodamo and Skjerdal 2009).…”

“…Most research on bribery and corruption seems either to flow into a debate about professionalism and ethics in journalism or to explain the phenomenon as intrinsically associated to contexts of political instability, economic distress and poverty (Wahl-Jorgensen and Cole 2008); some research raises a combination of the two debates as causes naturally connected. The problem is worsened by, in certain countries, a lack of ethical codes for the media, and in most contexts an absence of ethics training for journalists, a flawed sense of professionalism and a disquieting laxity of the regulatory bodies (Lodamo and Skjerdal 2009; Onyebady and Alajmi 2014; Eke 2014). Although recognising the problematic side of bribery, journalists often appear to accept it as intrinsic to the profession, justified by their low salaries and poor journalistic training.…”

“…Different to more explicit forms of bribery, journalists understand per diem as more of a grey area. Studying the case of Ethiopia, Lodamo and Skjerdal (2009) documented that many workers saw these stipends as an opportunity to get extra income and they saw this as legal practice since it was decided by government tariffs. Although most journalists did not see any issue in receiving this surplus payment, the same research identified that this resulted in an informal contract, where positive coverage was expected.…”