The 2015 Oromo Protest and Legal Reform Process
摘要
Following the 2018 government administration change, new initiatives to amend and enact liberal laws were introduced. The initiatives mainly focused on freedom of expression, association, and assembly, leading to the revision and enactment process of the Media Proclamation, Hate Speech and Disinformation Prevention and Suppression Proclamation, the draft Access to Information Proclamation, and the draft Computer Crime Proclamation. The question here is: “Did the 2015 Oromo protest in any way influence the government to protect and regulate freedom of expression within the fundamental obligations of freedom of expression that requires responding to the competing interests of main actors in Internet governance during the legal reform process?” This chapter discusses the influence of the 2015 Oromo protest to bring about changes in the protection and regulation of freedom of expression on the Internet. The chapter underpins the discussions made in Chapters 3 and 4 about the influence of the Internet as a communication platform and site of political resistance during the 2015 Oromo protest. Most importantly, this chapter sheds light on the framings of the 2015 Oromo protest to examine whether freedom of expression in general, and online expression in particular, were in any way among the protesters’ demands that later influenced the current administration to protect and regulate freedom of expression online and physical access to the Internet.