BONOS Y CUTOAS PARTES PENSIONALES

The news media used vivid and descriptive language to highlight the nature of the government violence against the protesters. In the excerpt quoted earlier, Boulo (2015) of

Agence France Presse, for example, described the death of protesters as “two lifeless bodies lay

on the ground….” In the same excerpt, she also described the ensued emotion using the phrase (“…terrified crowd…”). She further highlighted imbalance of force between participants

(“…armed only with sticks against gun-toting Ethiopian security forces”). To the level of violence, it used the phrase “fierce crackdown on protestors.” Boulo also tried to create further images of the violence in the readers’ minds by saying “Blood seeped a sheet covering one of the bodies on the road….” (para, 2).

Like Agence France Presse, The Washington Post also used similar descriptive language to highlight the violence against Oromo protesters. For example, Paul Schemm, the author of the news article, published on August 9, 2016, used a picture of many pairs of shoes with the caption that read: “protesters’ shoes lie scattered on the sidewalk in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Aug. 6

after demonstrators were arrested and taken away by police.” In this news story, Schemm gave

salience to how the government treated the protesters, for example, by forcing them to walk barefoot and beating them: “the detained protesters walked barefoot through the rain, escorted by grim-faced police officers who casually beat them with batons to keep them moving” (para.2). By referring to what was going on in different parts of the country as a “bloody story” and citing the Human Rights Watch’s estimation of 400 deaths over months, he portrayed the action of the government against protesters as “harsh” (para. 13).

In its editorial published on October 11, 2016, The Washington Post was even more direct in describing government officials’ violent response to the protesters. For example, in its choice of the title: “Ethiopia meets protests with bullets,” it clearly indicated the means of the violence, i.e., bullets. By referring to the death of protesters at Irreecha festival in Bishoftu on October 2, 2016, the editorial framed the government response as “tragic and emblematic of the government’s wrongheaded use of force” (The Washington Post Editorial, 2016, para. 2). The stampede at the Irreecha festival resulted in the death of more than 52 people after security forces used teargas and live ammunition to disperse protesters.

In another editorial published on January 8, 2016 with the title: “Ethiopia silences its

critics with a deadly crackdown on dissent,” The Washington Post also highlighted the

government response as “devastating violence” (para. 1). It used the “devastating violence” frame as a choice the government officials made over “dialogue” to address the protesters’ demands. CNN also used the violence frame to describe the security forces’ response to the protesters. For example, Awol Allo, in an opinion piece published on August 9, 2016, described the level of force against the protesters as “overwhelming.” He wrote that “the government used overwhelming force to crush the protests, killing hundreds of protestors and arresting thousands” (para. 8).

Likewise, The New York Times highlighted a violence theme. For example, in its news story titled: “A Generation is Protesting in Ethiopia, Long a U.S. Ally” (16, September 2016), Gettleman used a 32-second video by posted Upadhye (2012) captioned: “Demonstrators demanding political change in Ethiopia have been met with violent resistance by the

government.” The video shows security forces beating protesters with sticks. At one point it also shows a police officer kicking a protester in the face with a military combat boot. In order to highlight the violence theme, the New York Times article also hyperlinked to another video of the Human Rights Watch posted on June 15, 2016. The video shows, among other things, police officers whipping protesters with sticks and forcing others to do handstands.

Gettleman (2016) of TheNew York Times also drew attention to different types of violence against protesters. For example, he quoted human rights groups saying: “opposition within the country has been limited, with dissents effectively silenced. Many have been exiled, jailed, killed or driven to the far reaches of the desert” (para. 5). In its other article published on September 13, 2016, Kushkush, the author of the article, used the violence frame to emphasize

how even children and pregnant women were victims. For example, it quoted Athlete and activist Feyisa Lilesa who said:

I had been witnessing the suffering of my people….This is not new to me, but we have not seen what we are seeing now when young children and pregnant women and elderly are being killed; things got worse by the day in the last nine months (para. 11).

In the New York Times’ edition of August 21, 2016, Victor Daniel and Jeffrey Gettleman also referenced human rights groups saying: “…they [protesters] have been met by brutal crackdowns by the government including the shooting death of unarmed protesters” (para. 10).

Reuters also used the violence frame to describe the government response to the protests.

For example, in its news story published on October 2, 2016, titled: “Dozens killed in stampede

in Ethiopia after police fired warning shots at protests,” Maasho (2016) posted a video. The

video clip shows many men and women in cultural attire converging on Hora Harsadee, a lakeside where the annual Irreecha festival is celebrated, singing the Irreecha songs. After a few seconds, the video shows many young people shouting “we need justice” by crossing their arms above their head—a symbol of resistance used by Oromo protesters. Then, the video shows police firing teargas to disperse the protesters which led to a stampede, which in turn resulted in the death of more than 50 people. Then, it showed people being plunged into ditches and many of them trying to come out of the ditches, some falling down. In the same text, Reuters used pictures of some injured protesters lying on the ground with a caption: “Injured protesters wait for help after several people died during the Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2, 2016. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri.” Maasho (2016) also used description of a witness who “saw people dragging out a dozen or more victims, showing no obvious sign of life” (para.9). It also quoted another witness who said,

“Half a dozen people, also motionless, were seen being taken by pick-up truck to a hospital...” (para. 9).