About MEKONNEN Teshome Tollera

Mekonnen Teshome Tollera, is an international freelance journalist, a senior communication and public relations expert and passionate about science communication.

Mekonnen holds his first degree in Foreign Language and Literature from the Addis Ababa University (AAU) and his Masters in English Language from the same university, AAU.

Prior to joining the journalism world, he served as an English teacher for few years and began his long professional journey of journalism at the former Ministry of Information as a reporter for the official state Magazine “Ethiopia” and producer of other promotional publications.

Later he was transferred to the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) as a senior reporter for the Ethiopian Herald which is the National English Daily and climbed the ladders of the professional career of editorship and the position of news room Coordinator.

Then, he served the National TV, the Ethiopian Television, as an editor and program producer and afterwards he become a website news editor for Walta Information Center.

Presently, Mekonnen is also one of the Ethiopian Science Journalists who are serving as freelance correspondents for various international media outlets including IMS, American Geophysical Union (Eos), the sub-Saharan branch of SciDev.net, ScienceAfrica – Kenya, Down To Earth, India, IPS, South Africa, and many more.

As a Science journalist, he writes for local and international media houses focusing on biotechnology, climate change, health and agriculture. He has published thousands of prevailing newspaper, magazine and online stories. Mekonnen is the founder of Ethiopia’s first “Science Journalists Association (SJA)”.

He is a well-travelled and a multiple award winner science journalist who received various media awards and international fellowships including – the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) and “1st Rank in Print and Online Category Award of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB 2020).

Mekonnen also offers various trainings for fellow African journalists and gives speeches on Science Journalism, Climate Change, Journalism Safety and Security, Health Reporting and etc.

Currently, he serves as the lead Communication and Public Relations Counselor of the biggest business conglomerate in Ethiopia – MIDROC Ethiopian Group.

Though he writes mostly in the English language, he is a versatile writer and editor of Amharic language contents. He has authored his own book on Public Relations in Amharic – “Public Relations – A Practical Guide” “የህዝብ ግንኙነት ሥራ – ተግባራዊ መመሪያ” and coauthored another book – “Journalism and Its Leadership” “ጋዜጠኝነትና አመራሩ” , published by the Ethiopian Press Agency.