This study generally deals with the practice of censorship and its ethical effects in therngovernment owned Ethiopian Television. It has been based on the hypothesis that directrncensorship imposed by the government authorities or politicians and self-censorshiprnwhich is the result of internalized fear of punishment among the journalists are thernreasons for underreporting contending political views.rnThe rational to study this issue is the threat that repressive governmental influence andrncontrol of the media could pose to the newly emerging multi-party politics in the country.rnThe broadcast media in general and the television in particular have remained under thernmonopoly of government fourteen years after the promise for democracy and therndemocratic media that can entertain plural voices. This medium has made a bad name forrnitself, for its lack of depth and one-side reporting of events. It has been restricted tornserving the political propaganda of the party in power to the extent of committing outrnright bias and bombarding opposition parties that holds viewpoints critical to or differentrnfrom the government. This is what has made imperative a need to study the problem ofrncensorship and its ethical consequences.rnThree methods are employed to conduct this study. The first is survey method. Selfadministeredrnquestioner is responded by the editors and reporters working in fourrnnewsrooms of ETV to elicit the forms of direct censorship, self-censorship and the majorrntarget issues. Secondly, the contents of some news stories selected from post-electionrn2005 ETV coverage are analyzed to show the fairness of the coverage towards the rulingrnand opposition political parties. Thirdly interviews are conducted with five selected andrnwilling journalists to supplement the responses given by the questionnaire. The analysisrnof the data has shown direct censorship is practiced in ETV through assigning faithfulrn5rnparty members, providing guidelines or directives to the journalists and directlyrnreviewing the contents of the news stories. Self-censorship is also manifested in severalrnforms. One is dodging political issues particularly reporting opposition parties. Thernjournalists also tone up and tone down political issues based on the interests of the rulingrnparty. The other form of self-censorship is that journalists are externalizing theirrnresponsibility regarding the transmission of sensitive new stories. This is often practicedrnby consulting the faithful party members in the medium to decide on the fate of thernsensitive issues like coverage of the opposition parties. It is a tactic used by editors tornmanage the risk of punishment.