Journalistic practice and media production away from home (in exile) : the case of Wazema Radio

Benefitting from the theories of alternative media and journalistic professionalism, this study tries to portray the lived professional experiences of Ethiopian journalists establishing and running an online radio named Wazema from their new destinations. The station is registered and operated from Sweden, but its contributors hail from the Ethiopian diaspora environment in various countries, and also from the homeland. Qualitative in-depth interviews with ten journalists and available document analysis are the methods of data collection. The study asks how journalists consider their professional integrity as journalists in exile and how they use the digital medium to reach their audiences back in the homeland. It also tries to reflect on production and organizational opportunities and challenges met by the journalists. Referring to their background in the homeland and their victimization as journalists, as well as their work at Wazema, the journalists regard their role as exile journalists with no reference to elements of activism. Most regard credibility as the most important journalistic element of their practice at Wazema followed by verification and independence, though at the same time they admit the challenge to prioritize one from the other. Wazema journalists view the political reform in their homeland as facilitating their transition from exile media practitioners to founders and runners of independent mainstream media, provided the political change sustains in institutionalization and legal backing. This investigation shows the role of exile media in aiding journalists on the run from authoritarian regimes, the use of local working journalists’ identity to extract information in a media repressive regime as well as the role ordinary citizens play in smuggling information to journalists in exile