SECTOR 4 4.7 Journalists and media houses have integrity and are not corrupt. Some media houses have a strict code which deals with payments or other benefits from the public. These codes strictly forbid the acceptance of per diems, free accommodation or even refreshments and journalists who break the code face administrative penalties. Owners or publishers are supposed to cover the expenses of journalists on duty. The Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency, for example, pays transport costs and per diems to its reporters sent to cover an event. Some journalists, however, disregard such codes. There are those called “cocktail journalists” who prefer to go to events that offer refreshments, and there are others who accept allowances from both their publisher and the event organisers. “Hard core” corruption, although not yet widespread, is increasing. Some “crooked” journalists accept money (“brown envelopes”) to do or not to do a certain story. They even go to the extent of blackmailing individuals or companies, threatening to publish a story unless they are paid a certain sum of money. One journalist is known to have demanded a payment of 10,000 birr (US$ 610), failing which he would bad-mouth the company in question in his report. When the company refused the journalist wrote a defamatory story - with the result that the publisher had to pay the company a substantial amount of money in compensation. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 56 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ETHIOPIA 2010 2.5