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| The BBC - Once an Icon of Somali Broadcasting May Become an Irrelevant Entity. By Wardheernews Editorial Board
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It is called "Bush House." Gothic in architecture and Celtic in design, the mere walk in the corridors of Bush House that lead to its recording studios is arresting. Located on the historic corridor of Kingsway in Central London, Bush House has a colonial flavor both in architecture and in its reach to all the corners of the world. Started in 1938, the World Service broadcasts in all major languages, and the Somali language was added to its broadcasting service in 1957.
Walking into the tiny, vintage recording studio of the Somali program is an imposing "she camel" poster that claims the entire fa�ade of a prime wall. Beneath it is the simple inscription of " hoyga Af-Soomaaliga," or �home of the Somali language.?Implicit, yet bold message, these simple words express a commitment to excellence in Somali journalism and culture whose consumers are the "Somali speaking people."
That is why any Somali speaking person who heard, either on prime time or on preserved antique tapes ( Cajalad ), the immortal and ageless essay that Sulaymaan Dahir Afqarshe has aired on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth in the 1970s, can immensely appreciate the Service's role in Somali journalism and culture. In Af-Qarshe's essay, the Somali is simple, beautiful, and descriptively rich enough to bolster and unleash the listener's imagination into the setting and gravity of the function described.
That was then, radio days, whence the BBC Somali program could boast to have in its employment ranks luminary journalists like the late Mustafa Xaaji Nuur, Abdullhai Xaaji (now a part timer), Cusman Sugule, Cusman Xasan, Sulaymaan Daahir Af-qarshe, Idris Xasan Diiriye, Kaltuum Iimaan and others. The rhythmic voices of Xaaji and Xaaji on the news hour, the rhetorical clich of Sugule, the rhyming tones of Cusman Xasan and the soothing touch of Kaltuum Iimaan, these qualities are what made the BBC an immortal institution of journalism and cultural repository for the Somali speaking people who occupy a significant portion of the Horn of Africa region.
Moreover, the programs [aired on the BBC then] were well programmed, diversified and spoke of the better-educated staff that organized them. "This week and Africa," or in Somali, " Todobaadkan iyo Afrika ," represented, among other things, the finest of Somali journalism, just as did ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" for America. And to a population that is largely pastoral and oral-based, yet with unmatched appetite for world politics, it was a venue for education and International Relations 101.
Today's BBC programs are poorly organized and have become something akin to the 1980s Somali plays at Mogadishu Theater, when national art and culture were reduced to a field that appealed only to the less exposed. Due to inferior programming and biased news coverage, the Service often avoids certain issues and over indulges in others, thus a declined quality of broadcasting.
For example, the Service, either by omission or because of its limited professional capability, missed an opportunity to broadly cover the recent elections in the Somali National State in Ethiopia, where the second largest Somali speaking population (second only to southern Somalia ) lives. Despite top-down manipulation of the results by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the August 2005 elections were the only thing close to a semblance of "liberalization" of Abyssinian rule that this region has seen since emperor Menilik II conquered it. The Service could have given a better coverage to let its listeners learn more about the magnitude of the election fraud, and the fact that hundreds of Somalis discharged their duties by casting their votes against many odds, including casting their votes under the shadow of armed soldiers inside military barracks. But it settled for the cursory and expatriate-like review of events of Mr. Caddow, whose earlier coverage of the region has been utterly disappointing.
Worse, the Service does not have a single reporter in the Somali region. Aadan Cusman, a part time reporter who has retired from the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), is charged to monitor the region out of Addis Ababa. The Service's reporting of this region, hence, is through second hand informants who deliver nothing more than government official line or what Somalis aptly refer to as "kutidhi kuteen," or news of the rumor mill.
The lowest point of the Service is marked by its uneven-handed coverage of the visits of the President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the Speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament, Sharif Hassan. The President was the only [official] invitee to the General Assembly, and that was the prime news-making event. Speaker Hassan was invited by a non-governmental body, Association of World Parliaments, and was practically on his own. The Service should have given a prime coverage to the president. It once again, deliberately erred by totally ignoring to cover the President's [official] and historic visit, while it spent many news hours on covering minute details of the Speaker's multi-track trip. Worse, the BBC continues to insist on addressing Mr. Abdillahi Mohamud Jama ?Sifir ?as the deputy prime minister, despite the removal of ?Sifir ?from that post earlier this year by the prime minister. This represents present-day rather activist, albeit unwarranted face of the Service!
Or, consider the time - this past summer to be exact - when Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf visited London and the decision maker of the Service, probably Mr. Yusuf Garad , who is currently the program Editor rendered it non-newsworthy! They only interviewed the president only after he paid a visit to Bush House to be heard. Strangely enough the BBC often provides a platform for the junior players who are either in Mogadishu or are affiliated with the Mogadishu-based sectarian wing of the TFG through interviews and coverage of their minor events.
In which ever way you slice it, notwithstanding one's clannish or even ideological opposition to Mr. Ahmed or his government, the president's trip to London, home to thousands of Somali refugees and the seat of one of Somalia 's colonial powers as well as the BBC itself, was a serious newsworthy event. It should have been given an adequate coverage.
Whatever satisfaction Mr. Garad had driven from this creepy incident, it did not constitute a humiliation of the president. On the contrary, it painted Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as someone who has taken the higher moral grounds who can ignore little men's idiotic feelings and focus on the big picture - in this case getting his message out. The Service's decision on this matter must be viewed to represent its lowest point and should not pass without denting the credibility and integrity of what truly once was " hoyga Af-Soomaliga ."
The failure of the Service to field a reporter to Jawhar one year after most of TFG members and 2/3 rd of the parliament moved to that city as their transitional administrative seat is baffling. Once again, the Service's coverage of TFG news out of Mugadishu is politically biased and is not based on sound journalistic decision. An Aha moment! The BBC is no longer what it used to be, or in Somali, "War miyaanan garan goblanto in aanay BBCdu tii hore ahayn!"
The BBC has failed also to cover adequately the dispute between Puntland and Somaliland. A case in point is Adhi Cadeeye, the only active theater in the entire Somali speaking world where two heavily armed belligerent militia forces (Somaliland against Puntland) are facing each other, only separated by an unmonitored mere 10 kilometers of barren land. The potential conflict that could flare up once more, especially if Somaliland thinks that submission of the people of Sool, Sanaag and Buuhoodle regions to secession, be it by brute force or persuasion, is a prerequisite for its hard-after-sought recognition, is newsworthy to many Somalis.
The Service also declined, by design or by benign neglect, to make any reporting on the temporary relocation of the office of Puntland's speaker of the parliament to Lascaanood during the entire period when the rather well covered Somaliland local elections were taking place. The entire Puntland's effort was mounted and placed in Laascaanood to avoid any meaningful election to take place in these regions. This too was newsworthy, as Somaliland and Puntland had almost had a repeat of showdown on where to limit Somaliland 's elections.
The BBC Somali Service is, in the eyes of many critics, either corrupted, which is not an unlikely phenomenon under Somali management, or lacks the collective professional integrity. Perhaps both.
Many of our readers have contacted us to comment on the declining quality of the Service's coverage of Somali-speaking regions and wanted to hear our recommendations. Some of you have even tallied to us the details of who is employed when and from where in order to emphasize the imbalance that is reflected in the staffing of the program. In other words, you maintain the charge that Garad has skewed the employment of the Service to one side and has compromised on the Service's quality of journalism.
As things stand today, the BBC Somali Service is not the icon of journalism and culture it once committed itself to be. Like all other Somali institutions that have been gutted and dumped into the gutters, the Service's deterioration by showing affinity for narrow/sectarian objectives plus poor programming warrants a new search for an alternative approach to " hoyga Af-Soomaliga " in post civil war Somalia.
After careful monitoring of the Service's daily and weekly programs, we came to the following unavoidable conclusions: The quality of the Service's Somali program had indeed declined, coupled with pervasive biased approach to both news-making events and news-makers, be they politicians or [Somali] bandits. Wide spread disappointment of million of Somali listeners of the BBC Somali Service has surpassed that of the time when Peter Gilcks, a British journalist married to an Ethiopian women, headed the entire African program and promoted an anti-Somali environment in the midst of the Ethio - Somali war in 1977-1978.
If these issues are left unattended, the loosers are both the Service and Somali listeners.
To ameliorate the situation, we recommend two simple but painful steps that the World Service has so far resisted:
1. That the management of the Service look into the allegations of bias and poor programming, which have plagued this valuable program and correct the problems expeditiously.
2. A re-assessment of the programming and staffing of the Service so that it can meet the need of a growing demand of more news-savvy and better educated Somalis, who are exposed to western style news making.
That is the only way, we think, the Service can remain relevant and still aspire to its original commitment of excellency in journalism and cultural promotion.
Source: Wardhere News Editorial Board |
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