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One of the all time controversial media issues is to what extent journalists enjoy independence in their reporting against the interests of the media owners. Unlike other jobs, journalism needs exceptionally high level of independence not only from the government and advertisers but also from the media proprietors. With the increasing challenges that are emerging from the contemporary media commercialism, journalists are tempted, lured and pressurized by their own employers to follow the interests of their proprietors. Though the private media is synonymously labeled as independent and free media, its employees in the newsroom hardly enjoy journalistic autonomy, especially in the case of the Ethiopian private press. In other words, the key question this book raises will be to what extent the independent media is independent. This book also shed a light on some exciting facts about the relationship between ownership versus independence, and can be invaluable resource especially to media owners, practitioners,communication researchers and media analysts.

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Mohammed Selman Awol, MA: Studied Journalism and Communication in Addis Ababa University. Lecturer in Mekelle University, Writer and Contributor in Addis- Neger Newspaper. Mekelle, Ethiopia.

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