The anti-corruption campaign and the saga of Metal & Engineering Corporation (MetEC) has ensnared several people who had once been prominent figures in government and the ruling party. The documentary, entitled Minabawi (Illusion) uncovering web of corruption about the corporation has gathered huge reaction. Many expressed shock at the audacity and level of embezzlement and corruption of the military-affiliated corporation, whose leaders were once considered untouchable.

Yet question of balance, breaches of journalistic ethics and possible smear campaign has come to the fore. Some are registering their displeasure and concern against the documentary they say is playing the role of a prosecutor and pursuing certain groups for political manoeuvring than the real quest for justice. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) chair Debretsion Gebremichael was among those who objected to the treatment of former chief executive of MetEC, Kinfe Dagnew, whom he said was victim of a slanderous piece the state TV ran on the suspect. “A suspect should be brought to the court, not to the media,” Debretsion was quoted as saying.

In other cases, friends and allies were quick to rush to the defence of certain personalities featured in the documentary and implicated in the misconduct. Journalist and theatre script writer, Tewodros Teklaregay has a written a piece questioning the appropriateness of dragging Fitsum Yeshitila, a former Ethiopian television presenter and advertising entrepreneur, to the affair on scant grounds. After Fitsum has been taken to jail, accused of receiving 954, 770 birr from the METEC in an illegal sponsorship deal, Tewodros argued that the case was “vague and unclear” and wondered what the crime was.

Though that was not clearly stated in the court appearance, Tewodros believed that Fitsum was implicated in relation to documentary film that she did two years ago. The documentary in question was a PR stunt for MetEC that featured seven “technologically endowed school students” visiting the various sites of MeTEC projects and Kinfe Dagnew explaining the corporation’s activities in series of conversations. The preparation of the film that Fitsum herself outsourced to another company, Meiraf Multimedia and Promotion took a year, she said at the premier of the film.

Whether Fitsum’s  documentary might have painted a false picture of reality could be a matter for discussion, but few seem to think it was illegal. Elias Aweke, a Toronto-based Ethiopian journalist who runs a weekly internet radio station, Megenagna says MetEC has every right to finance a documentary to promote itself and its activities and to retain full editorial control over the material. For Mesele Adane, an Addis Ababa based documentary maker, the charge could not be about the content of the documentary, rather the way in which it was awarded and whether all necessary requirements and regulations were observed or not.

Actor’s popularity dented

For some whose name was associated and sullied in the documentary, though not criminally charged, the affair has become a bitter pill to swallow, as was the case for the exiled prominent actor Znah-Bzu Tsegaye. Znah-Bzu has found himself in an unpleasant situation of defending himself and trying to distance himself from MetEC after his name was mentioned in the documentary. Znah-Bzu’s name was cited for earning large pay and travelling to the United States as MetEC employees to promote the corporation’s product.

Speaking to the US-based Reyot Media, Zna-bzu said he was indeed paid about 8,000 US dollars for hotel and other related costs to promote the MetEC assembled vehicles for potential buyers of Ethiopian Diasporas in the US while he was heading there on vacation with his wife and child. Znah-Bzu would seek asylum in the US after leaving the country two months later, saying he had faced political repression from the regime.

For some, it was preposterous for the actor to accuse the regime of repression and take the image of a dissident, after pocketing his share of the earnings from the regime’s enterprise before he decided to part ways. Zna-bzu retroactively says he regretted accepting the money and “if this was not appropriate, I should be blamed for that.”  He says after the screening of the recent film on MetEC, he has been receiving inflammatory messages and insults from various corners.

Znah-Bzu, who is now working as a chef in Washington D.C area, says there were several who called at his workplace and called him names, some accusing him of taking a much more important sum than was stated in the documentary. His family has been through a lot, he said. “The abuses have been incessant and it’s been very frightening.”

To calm the storm, Zna-bzu said he is willing to cooperate if there is a need to return the money in cash or kind or to face justice. For the time being, the actor’s honor is not to be restored anytime soon, if the social and mainstream media reaction is anything to go by.

Asemahagn Aseres, a journalism lecturer at the Addis Ababa University, says that from the point of view journalistic ethics and standards, the METEC documentary could be problematic in a number of ways but there is another rational, the public’s right to know. “The public has the right to know about the embezzled wealth and missed property. Of course, that would come with the danger of possible damages for those suspects. But this is not unique to this case, but rather to anyone being liable to such treatment,” he says.

Producing documentary films for a damning indictment before trial is not entirely new in the Ethiopian medial landscape. One of the famous examples was “Jihadic Harekat” screened on February 2013, characterized by many as nothing more than a piece of political propaganda, targeting Muslim protesters. The film, using loose and misleading representations, associated local Muslim protesters, then on trial accused of involvement in terrorism, with militant groups in other parts of Africa.

Observers say the context is of course different today, MetEC has already suffered a notoriety even before this film and the political climate is not the same today as it was when the Jihad Hareket film was made.

But the as the documentary on MetEC has demonstrated, the impact of such expository strategies, using compilation of images and authoritative voice-over narrations is huge. Questions about subjectivity, appropriateness and lawfulness would continue to make the format highly contentious.

(Update: In her second court appearance on November 26, Ftisum Yeshitila was charged for illegally taking 11,500 US dollars from MetEC and travel to the United States pretending to be the company’s employee. She was also suspected of arranging for another person to take 11,500 US dollars from the company and travel to US.)

Main image: METEC officials along with Veteran TPLF figure Sebhat Nega, and the then director general of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, Zeray Asegdom at a documentary premier on May 23, 2016 in Addis Ababa’s the Oromo Cultural Center. Photo credit, Dire Tube

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