Ethiopia's Media Regulator Bans Tigray TV, Three Years After Lifting the Last Ban

Ethiopia's media regulator has banned Tigray TV, the regional broadcaster it permitted to return to air after the Pretoria peace agreement, according to a statement carried on Monday.

The Ethiopian Media Authority said the earlier prohibition on the station had been lifted following the agreement between the federal government and the TPLF signed in Pretoria, and after discussions with Tigray's interim administration. The station went back to work on that basis.

The regulator's account

In the authority's telling, the reopening came with conditions and with support. The office says it ran peace-building and professional training for Tigray TV's journalists and staff, work it describes as an effort to return the outlet to constitutional and professional lines.

That effort, the authority now says, did not hold. Its statement asserts that in the recent past the station took advantage of the opportunity it had been given — the point at which the regulator's case against the broadcaster turns, and the point on which it has so far said least in public.

Why a broadcast licence is a business story

A regional broadcaster is not only a political instrument. It is an advertising market, an employer, and a main distribution channel through which businesses in Meqelle and the surrounding towns reach a regional audience. A ban removes all three at once, with no stated end date.

It also lands in a week when the two chief negotiators of the Pretoria agreement have publicly warned that the settlement is under strain. The regulator's move and that warning are separate events, but they run in the same direction.

Open

The authority has not published the specific broadcasts it objects to, the legal provision it acted under, the duration of the ban, or any appeal route. Tigray TV has not responded publicly. The interim administration, which the authority says it consulted before the earlier reinstatement, has not said whether it was consulted this time.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 21 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 21 September 2026