The article examines Ethiopia's history and varying political states throughout challenging governments; especially interesting is the aspect of media as practical benefactor to either Ethiopian free speech and independence, or to "ethnic nationalist abuse" (87) through radical identities with undermining political agendas. In this country with its many cultural and ethnic facets it becomes an easy feat to have the available individual freedom oppressed by those parties who exploit its nation's democratic fragility.
Now, despite it being able to "manifest destructive and constructive tendencies as articulators, watchdogs and election monitors" (87), it is also highlighted by the author that free media encapsulates important democratic values that may overcome polarisation of both political and individual directions of power. In Ethiopia's case, a democracy prone to impactful manipulation through its motley political representatives, it appears especially important to have free media work towards unison and widespread representation while performing with a certain "‘therapeutic function’" (87).