AN OPEN LETTER to the BBC World Service
AN OPEN LETTER to the BBC World Service and the BBC Somali Section Leadership
To: Mr. Mark Thompson
Director
BBC World Service
Bush House
London
From: Former Announcers
BBC Somali Service
Date: June 20005
Dear Mr. Thompson
We the undersigned are former staff members of the BBC Somali Section who served at different times,
from the early years of the Service in the 1960s to the new millennium. We belong to different age
groups and come from different clans and from all regions of Somalia . If the present-day realities of
strife-torn Somalia are anything to go by, such background differences as exist amongst us would ensure
lack of commonality and no meeting of minds. Happily, that is not the case with us. What brings us
together above all is what binds us together: our common, shared BBC experience, in particular our loyal
association with the Somali Service and our determination to raise our voice in its defence whenever its
integrity and reputation are on the line. Sadly, such is the situation now.
The BBC Somali Service has been until recently the paragon among Somali broadcasting stations inside and
outside Somalia . Its high standards, built over a period close to half a century, have been true to the
BBC's well-known reputation for impartiality, fairness and objectivity. Unfortunately, that reputation
has been dealt major blows since Mr. Yussuf Garad Omar was appointed as head/editor of the Somali
Service. Needless to say, complaints among listeners that we had come to know from different sources in
our different ways are pervasive and are in our view well-grounded. We believe that these complaints
could be dealt with sufficiently and satisfactorily by your complaints Department. For the purpose of
this letter, we would like to focus on two areas that are core to most complaints raised, including
ours. The first concerns the staff of the Service and the second the quality of the programmes in terms
of impartiality and fairness.
Regarding the staff, Mr. Yussuf Garaad Omar, on taking charge of the Somali Section, is considered by
almost all the announcers at the time and ourselves to have masterminded the termination of the services
of more than half of the announcers based at Bush House-highly qualified men and women who were very
popular with listeners- only to replace them with inexperienced novices almost all from his clan. He
also recruited correspondents/stringers inside and outside Somalia-again almost all of them from his
clan. Taken together, these actions are seen by most listeners as patently both clan substitution and
clan nepotism. We are aware that this action has been sanctioned by the management of the BBC
(innocently we would like to believe) but the Service has yet to recover from the lingering damage done
to its reputation in this regard.
As for the programmes, the BBC Somali Service, under Mr. Yussuf Garaad Omar' supervision, has been
turned into a platform that would support his favoured political and clan factions against others in the
struggle for power and resources in Somalia . Numerous cases of bias in this respect can be cited but
one glaring example is the different treatments given to the elections of former President Abdulqasim
Salaad Hassan and the recently elected President Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed. When the former, a relative of
Mr. Yussuf Garaad Omar, was elected president in 2000 at a Somali peace conference organized by the
government of Djibouti , he was given full supportive coverage by the BBC Somali Service, support which
still continues. When, on the other hand, Mr. Abdullahi Yussuf , who is from another clan, was elected
President in the Nairobi Somali peace conference, only scant and mainly negative coverage was granted to
him and his government. Instead, his opponents-a group consisting of warlords, dissident MPs and
Ministers almost all from Yussuf Garaad's clan- were given generous publicity. This is the group who
destroyed the capital Mogadishu and Southern Somalia for the last 14 years and who are still united to
keep it that way. Most Somalis would like them to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity
like other warlords in Africa and the Balkans. In giving lop-sided supportive publicity to the warlords
and their associates, Mr Yussuf Garaad Omar has again done another major damage to the reputation of the
Services. In the eyes of the Somali listeners, the BBC is seen to have clearly condoned Mr. Garaad
biased actions entailing his support to his political favourites.
What we are advocating ourselves is not uncritical support for one side or the other but the maintenance
of the BBC's well known principles of impartiality and even-handedness.
As we have mentioned earlier in this letter, these observations we have mentioned are only selected
spotlights on an overall malaise that has been inflicted on the BBC Somali Service. What saddens us most
is that this problem has been allowed to build over some years with apparently no action(s) taken by the
BBC to redress it despite countless complaints by listeners. We ourselves are aware that many listeners
had complained to the former Head of the African Service, Ms. Kari Blackburn, without receiving any
response let alone any action taken to address their concerns.
It is for this reason that we, the former staff members of the Somali Service, have come together to
raise this matter with you. In this regard, we appeal to you to look into the running of the Somali
Service and save it from those who may willy-nilly ruin it. The BBC Somali Service after all is the most
cherished heritage that the British had left the Somalis for all the hundred years of its colonial rule.
Please accept, Sir, the assurances of our highest considerations
1 Mohamed Abshir Yussuf
Staff member from 1961-66
Nairobi , Kenya
2 Osman Hassan
BBC Somali Service 1962 -1977
United Nations 1977-2004
Geneva , Switzerland
3 Osman Suguleh
BBC Staff member 1965-1981
London
4 Idris Hassan Deria
Staff member 1969-1995
London
5 Sulemaan Dahir
Staff member 1970-1976
Hargeisa , Somaliland , Somalia
6 Said Farah Mohamoud
Staff member 1977- 2000
London
7 Mohamoud Hassan
1976-2000
London
8 Mohamoud Abdi Ali Dualeh
Staff member 1984-2000
London
9 Shamsa Abdullahi Ahmed
Until 2000
London
10 Mustafa Abdi Hussein “ Shafi ”
Until 2000
London
11 Mohamed Omar Ahmed “Hydra”
Until 2000
London
12 Suleiman Hussein Barkhadle
Until 2000
13 Mohamed Hamud Sheikh
Until 2000
14 Jawahir Suleman Elmi
Until 2000
London
15 Abdullahi Hassan Fadal
Until 2000
16 Mohamed Ali Mohamed
London
(All signatures are attached with the original letter sent to the BBC World Service)°
CC: Mr. Jerry Timmins
Head, Middle East and African Services
BBC S World Service
Bush House
Xigasho: Mareegta Wardheernews
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