[3] ESAT was established on April 24, 2010 by a group of leading exiled journalists, most of whom were jailed, tortured or forced into exile, to provide accurate, objective and balanced news, analysis and information, perspective as well as entertainment, talk shows, documentaries, sports and cultural programming pertaining to Ethiopia and the rest of the world.

In addition to a satellite and online TV service, ESAT also added a daily radio broadcast in September 2011.

[citation needed] ESAT from its inception was a source of contrary voices highly critical of the Ethiopian government.

There were one of many media organization banned and charged in absentia for inciting violence and promoting acts of terror by the Ethiopian government.

[8] In 2017, according to a Horn Affairs report, an ESAT journalist, Mesay Mekonnen, stated in a 6 August 2016 public broadcast by ESAT that the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) domination of Ethiopia was that of "a small minority ethnic group, representing five percent of the Ethiopian population, who wants to rule Ethiopia subjugating others" and that "the solution for what we are facing at this time is 'drying the water so as to catch (kill) the fish.'"