Yeroo struggles to survive - Jimma Times - September 22, 2008

Yeroo newspaper, the Jimma Times media's weekly publication inside Ethiopia, is struggling to survive, according to a statement from its owners in Ethiopia.

The first private and independent newspaper using Qubee Afaan Oromo in Ethiopia, Yeroo functioned only for a few weeks before it faced various problems over a month ago. The fundamental problem was proving to the official network Agencies that perform newspaper distribution to trust and accept it, said a statement sent to Jimma Times from its owners in Addis Ababa. However, the newspaper being in Afaan Oromo was a big turn-off for many agencies whose workers either do not understand the language or saw it as too risky, since Qubee [the Latin alphabet of Oromo's language] has OLF connotations. "This hurt us a lot and we almost felt like we are living in a foreign country," said the statement. Read More.