The major purpose of this s tudy is to asse ss the hi sto ry and ro le of The Vo ice of Ameri carn(VOA) Amha ric service, one of the internationa l radio broadcasters to Ethio p ia. It a lsornexamines its relations h ip with th e d iffe re nt r egimes that rul ed the co untry du rin g it s threerndecade of broadcasti ng news a nd in fo rm a tion. T he st ud y is pure ly used a hi s toric al a ppro achrnof th e qualitat ive m ethod and it empl oyed Edwa rd Herma n and Noa m Chomsky' s th ernPolitical Eco nomy of the Mass Media as it s theoret ical fra m ework. Quali tative data wasrnco ll ected f rom differen t printed or e lectro nic d ocuments and pe rso nal interviews w ith fonnerrna nd c urre nt emplo yees of th e VOA A mhari c se rvic e and o th er people who a re direct ly andrnind irect ly famil iar w ith the service of the radi o station.rnVOA sta rt ed it s record ed broadcast on Radi o Ethiopia durin g the Imperi a l period but it d idn ' trnlast lo ng. Afte r th e mi lit ary re g im e turn ed it s face towards the soc ialist ca mp VOA began itsrnAmharic br oadcast l ive from Was hin g ton DC in 198 2 to co unte r a nti- US pro paganda and tornw in acceptance among the populatio n, a nd a ft e r the e nd of Cold War the need to continu e o rrnto e nd the Amh a ri c service was an iss ue amo ng VOA officia ls and US diplomats to Ethiopi a.rnBut a lon gsi de the A mh a ri c serv ice VOA s tart ed add itiona l broadcast to Ethiopi a in AfanrnOromo a nd Tigregna in 1996.rnThe stu dy find o ut that VOA Amharic service se rved as an alte rn at ive source of info rmat ion,rnstarted o ther language broadcast as Ho rn of A fri ca se rvi ce, co nn ected th e Et hi op ian diaspor w ith ho me, served as a re liabl e so urc e of new s a nd information fo r th e pr iva te press, crea ted arnfo ru m for ope n di scu ss io n among a nta go nisti c gro ups in the co untry a nd di as pora. B ut thernEthiopi an gove rn men t accused t he rad io broadcast play ing a negati ve rol e as a mouth pi ece ofrnth e op pos ition. A nd most of th e t im e E thi opia n offi c ia ls we re no t w ill ing to spea k the ir s idernby p utt ing VOA Amhari c se rvice as bi ase d and un he lpful , engaged in des ta bi liz ing an d haternpropaganda. T he gove rn ment a lso admi tt ed t hat it has tried to j a m t he broad cast in res ponsernto it s c rit ic ism .rnThe study recommended that rathe r than accusi ng and tryin g to take dow n VOA Amharicrnbroadcast off a ir th e go ve rn ment s ho ul d feat ure it s sid e of an y sto ry to g ive the lis tene r arncha nc e to u nd ers tand it a nd mak ing d i ve rse an d bal anced info rmation ava il able to th e publi crnthro ug h th e go ve rnment c ontro ll ed medi a . Further studi es are need ed to u nde rstand VOA ' srnbroadcast s to Ethi o pia mo re and thi s st ud y c an se rve as a sp ring boa rd fo r it.