Rebuke to the BBC

The following is a copy of a recent complaint letter sent to BBC chairman of governors and signed by 260 Somali Britons. Thank goodness that there are people out there (Somali's in particular) who like myself, see the uncalled for bias that plagues the BBC coverage on Somalia.

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16 February 2007

To: The Chairman of the Board of Governors
35 Marylebone High Street
London W1U 4AA

Dear Sirs,

We are Somali-Britons who deeply care for the future of our country. We are very unhappy about the way the BBC Somali Service conducts the Somalia related programs: Such as the selection of News Topics to broadcast and the selection of the radical people interviewed.

We feel that the people in charge of the Somali Service are neither being impartial, diverse in opinion nor fair in reporting the reality in Somalia. On the contrary, they appear to be taking sides and acting as tools of propaganda for the Islamic Courts Union.

In our opinion, a group of Islamic Courts Union Supporters within the BBC Somali Service are selectively choosing interviewees to express the opinion of the group that the Islamic Courts Union are the chosen liberators of the Somali people. Thereby using the good offices of the BBC to campaign for the newly emerged Taliban Style Forces. We know these Forces as the New Somali Warlords who have replaced the previous, now ousted Somali Warlords. The people in charge of the BBC Somali Service is giving the activists of the Islamic Courts Union a platform as a means of propaganda for the purpose of poisoning, brain-washing and recruiting young innocent Somali-Britons and other youth Muslims in Britain, Somalia, and The East African Region, and indeed World-wide.

As you know, the ousted Somali Warlords killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Somalis. Dismantled our country’s physical infrastructure and social fabric, and took Somalia back to the Stone Age. Their activities were then confined in the Somali Territory. But now these Islamic Courts, the New Warlords, are a global threat, fanatic madmen, extremists and fundamentalists who want and plan to wage war on everyone, every religion & faith, including Islam. They have declared JIHAD without understanding what JIHAD is. They are only using Religion as a means to achieve their goals through the implementation of far more deadly and dangerous hidden agenda. I enclose a DVD Video demonstrating the Islamic Courts Union’s ideology and actions since they seized power in Mogadishu and Southern Somalia Regions.

What has happened to the Journalism Ethics of the BBC Somali Service? What has happened to the trusted and respected core values of News Broadcasting that has always distinguished the BBC from all the other Broadcasting Media? Are we to understand that the ethics of the BBC Somali Service are now the accepted ethics of the BBC.

Yours sincerely,
Somali–Britons
United Kingdom

First ten signatories out of 260:
1. Salah Sh. Abukar
2. Mohamed Ali Cawke
3. Maana Ahmed Omar
4. Ahmed Geelle
5. Xawa Haji Abukar
6. Luul Haji
7. Dr. M. Omar
8. Mr Hasan Hussein
9. Mr Xasan Warsame
10. Dr Abdul Hussein

Source: SomaliNet.com