A Global Conference, like the UN, does not get attention from the western media when it is held in Africa.

17th UN International Internet Conference is going on in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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December 1,2022

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This Monday, November 28, 2022, Addis Ababa was busy hosting a huge Global Conference, the 17th UN International Internet Conference, that gathered over 3,000 participants worldwide. The meeting, continuing till December 2, 2022, is so important and expected to generate new ideas to the internet world. The Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology, the Ethiopian Government as a whole, and the African Union make the meeting so pleasant and comfortable for the participants. Addis Ababa, one of the top three diplomatic cities in the world, has a tremendous experience hosting such big conferences. It is impossible to ignore such a vital meeting by any media service that feels responsible to the International community.

On Monday evening, the same day the UN conference opened, I tried to visit different TV channels like BBC, CNN, …and some other known western media. My expectation was that the UN International Internet Conference would be their primary news headline. Because this is a very key meeting that the UN has organized, General Secretary António Guterres's Video message was viewed by the participants, the deputy Secretary presented physically and over 3000 participants from all over the world are attending. So how can the media dare to undermine such a big conference as if it is not useful and universal?   As far as my visit, ‘’all africa.com’’, the UN News Agency, and all Ethiopian local and global media were the major media that took responsibility to update the world on the day-to-day activities of the conference. But other media are almost nothing they did on this very current and annual conference.

I am not talking about local, regional, or continental meetings. I am talking about the Global conference organized by the UN on the issue of our world’s futurity related to the internet. What could be the primary news for any International media, if this conference couldn’t be a focus?

Last year, the 16th Global Internet Conference was held in Poland. I tried to visit how it was reported by similar media on the same issue. We are sharing the same world. Media is responsible for focusing at least on our world’s strategic common issues, like the 17th UN International Internet Conference.

Now here are my questions: what are the criteria of the media for a conference to get attention and be reported primarily? Is it to be an International? Should it be organized by the UN? The 17th UN International Internet Conference fulfilled all these criteria. But not yet get attention or reported by ‘’International’’ media. Yes, the meeting is in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, where the African Union Headquarters is. My last word is that Africa needs its own media that can at least report to the world, such as a huge global conference.
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Getachew Bekele

Gudayachn Editor