Mesfin Negash

Mesfin Negash (Amharic: መስፍን ነጋሽ) is an Ethiopian journalist and political commentator for Addis Neger. He is a graduate of Addis Ababa University where he studied political science.

Mesfin’s career as a journalist started at Ethiopian Reporter in 2001.[1] At the newspaper, Mesfin wrote issues of politics and international relations. Before the controversial May 2005 elections, Mesfin left Ethiopian Reporter to join Meznagna newspaper as a columnist while working for local and international NGO as communication specialist and program officer. The reasons for his departure from Reporter hasn’t been made public. Mesfin’s political articles in Meznagna were mostly supportive of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy(CUD). In one of his articles, he opposed the early position of his former paper which called for the establishment of unity government in Ethiopia. Mesfin’s contention was that the ruling party’s democratic centralism is too much of an impediment for the formation of any governing coalition with it.

Meznagna was shut down in December 2005 by the government because it was first to publish the CUD’s unconstitutional and illegal call for the removal of the government even though the paper itself didn’t advocate for the forceful removal of the government. [2]

In 2007, Addis Neger was established by former Meznagna journalists including Mesfin Negash. Mesfin had been the Editor-in-Chief of the paper for a year before he moved to a managerial position in the paper. Under Mesfin’s watch, Addis Neger grew to be one of Ethiopia’s leading newspapers. Mesfin had written several articles in the paper which were milder in their tone and criticism of the government than his articles in Meznagna. Mesfin’s replacement, Abiye Teklemariam, is more radical in his approach than Mesfin. Addis Neger, including Mesfin’s articles, some alleged, turned into the intellectual voice of the Ethiopian opposition under the leadership of his replacement.

In August 2008, an Ethiopian judge sentenced Mesfin Negash to one month imprisonment for committing court contempt in connection to the trial of Teddy Afro, an iconic musician. [3]

References

1. Media:Meznagna reappears with alias. [4]

2. Charges of criminal defamation. [5]

3. Addis Neger newspaper