The study examines the impact of Ethiopia's Anti-Terrorism proclamation on the private press'rnability to investigate and report on matters of public interest. The topic started to grabrnattention since Ethiopia introduced an Anti-terrorism Proclamation in early 2009, whichrnbecame a part of the country's legal book on 28 August 2009. Since then, there have beenrncontradictory arguments made by various parties. The freedom of expression activists andrnjournalists, for example, have argued that the law is being used by the government as anrninstrument of suppressing dissenting views ~nd criticisms of the government, while therngovernment officials have argued otherwise. Thus, the study pays attention to examining howrnthis debate has shaped the real world of journalism and thereby affected the ro le ofthe privaternpress.rnTo this end, the study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting therndata. In-depth interview, documents and survey questionnaire were the specific data collectingrntools used. The data was gathered over a three- month period [from September 1 to Decemberrn28]. What is more, the libertarian theoretical framework was used to inform the study.rnThe f indings of the study reveal that overbroad and vague definition of terrorism and otherrnvaguely defined provisions in the anti-terrorism law are having a chilling effect on the mediarnlandscape in the country. Particularly, the controversial use of the terms 'terrorism', 'terrorismrnacts' and 'encouraging' terrorism has created a lot of gray areas and the government appears tornbe exploiting them to its advantage.Furthermore, provisions that affect the journalists' privileged relations with their sources asrnwell as the diminutive understanding of the law from the journalists' side were found to bernmaking the task of reporting challenging. These factors along with the prosecution of a numberrnof journalists under this law seem to have in sti lled fear among journalists and dissuaded themrnfrom investigating issues related to politics, good governance, sensitive religious matters andrnhumanitarian works. As a result, self-censorship abounds in the private press, hampering thernmedia's ability to investigate and report on matters of public importance, which in turn affectsrnthe public right to know.