- Title: [SW News] (BBC) - SOMALILAND PAPER CRITICIZES BBC SOMALI SERVICE COVERAGE
- From:[]
- Date :[]1999-12-28 22:28:32
SOMALILAND PAPER CRITICIZES BBC SOMALI SERVICE COVERAGE
Time: 1999-12-28 22:28:32
BBC MONITORING INTERNATIONAL REPORTS: SOMALILAND PAPER CRITICIZES BBC SOMALI SERVICE
COVERAGE 91% match; BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom ; 27-Dec-1999 04:13:17 pm ;
928 words++++++ An editorial on the front page of Somaliland's leading independent
newspaper has rapped the BBC World Service's Somali programme makers for failing to pay
sufficient attention to Somaliland's "independence". It also criticized the
BBC's "blind endorsement" of the Djibouti president's peace plan for Somalia.
The following are excerpts from the editorial in the Somaliland weekly newspaper `The
Republican' on 25th December: Nearly a decade after Siyad Barre [former Somali president]
was brought down by the SNM [Somali National Movement], the BBC's [British Broadcasting
Corporation's] Somali service has yet to give attention to the colossal destruction of
Somaliland and the death of tens of thousands of its citizens in the hands of the former
military regime in Mogadishu. Neither has the issue of Somaliland's resumption of its
independence on 18th May 1999 as a sovereign state, and the struggle of its people for the
realization of peace, national reconciliation and nation-building from scratch, attracted
even few words of comment from the Somali section of this internationally-famed
broadcasting service. [Passage omitted: More on when the Somali service was established,
details of the first news caster/programme producers] But it was during the late seventies
through the eighties, when Siyad Barre imposed total censorship on local media and a reign
of terror and death on people in the north (now Somaliland) that the BBC's Somali unit has
uncharacteristically started betraying its listeners by consistently failing to report on
the events that shook this country. Frequent acts of ethnic cleansing and other gross
violations of human rights by the former dictatorship against civilians were noted as
meriting no comment from the BBC. Many Somalilanders remember well how a peaceful
demonstration by students on 20th February 1987 in Hargeisa was incorrectly reported in a
dispatch by the BBC's Abdullahi Haji, who was visiting Hargeisa on an official assignment.
Mr Haji gave widely misleading account of the demonstration, which was put down violently
by the Somali military leaving scores of people dead and wounded, by portraying the
incident as a rally held by enthusiastic government supporters. There are so many examples
of similar cases belonging to that epoch when reporters of the Somali section succeeded in
censoring or distorting the newscast over the BBC radio, particularly during the height of
repression against Somalilanders. As Somaliland became wholly liberated by January 1991
and was subsequently proclaimed, once again, a sovereign state by its own people, this
tendency of trying to conceal or misinterpret what happens in front of the eyes of people
on ground continued to remain in effect. We are therefore not surprised at the
overwhelming blind endorsement given by the senior staff of Somali service to Djiboutian
President Ismael Omar Gelleh's peace plan for Somalia. After showing great enthusiasm for
every sloppy international intervention effort to resolve the Somali crisis, the BBC's
staff of the Somali programme seem now to have been struck by Mr Gelleh's plan for
reconciliation in Somalia as a revelation from heaven. During the last few months, we have
been targeted for one of the most Hippocratic [as received], dull and uninformative
discussions as the BBC's Somali broadcasters continued to moderate debates on President
Gelleh's master plan for peace and reconciliation in Somalia. This topic, as if there is
nothing else important to talk about or do, still remains under focus in broadcast
disseminated by Mr Abdullahi Haji and his colleagues, who regrettably have demonstrated
over the last two decades a profound poverty in morality standards and intellectual
capacity to be able to objectively analyse the roots of the Somali problem. [Passage
omitted: more on the discussions made by the BBC Somali service on President Gelleh's
peace plan]. The BBC says that all previous peace attempts failed, without explaining why:
As if the whole objective of this campaign is to create a centre stage under which Mr
Gelleh can run a new show on reconciliation. By contrast however, the Somali journalists
of the BBC still show no qualms about their failure to say nothing about all the so many
positive achievements that have been taking root in Somaliland, such as peace and national
reconciliation; full restoration of law and order, demobilization, reconstruction,
repatriation of refugees and de-mining; government structuring and functioning; the free
press and the transformation of the SNM into a loyal democratic opposition party etc. On
contrary, Somaliland's determination to stay independent is often subject for bemoaning in
the BBC circles. It is common knowledge that the most honest and reasonable journalists do
commit mistakes from time to time. But no cause including that of peace can be advanced
through misleading analysis and conclusions aired through the BBC medium. However, we feel
concerned over the credibility of the Somali service since there is not yet a rival radio
programme with similar capacity to reach millions of Somalis. The BBC will continue to be
an important source of information for the Somali speaking communities in the Horn [of
Africa] and some other parts of the world. It would be sad if the BBC fails to keep up its
long-held popularity among Somali listeners that was won through independent, adequate and
reliable coverage of news developments not only in the world but in the Horn as well.
Since the majority of Somalis still turn to the BBC for news information and are likely to
remain so in the foreseeable future, it's imperatively important that the people running
the Somali programme take the necessary steps towards the regaining of the confidence of
their long-time listeners.++++ Source: `The Republican', Hargeisa, in English 25 Dec 99 p
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