Prime News Ghana

Former BBC staff Saanie Daara worried about their recent 'drop in standards'

By Mutala Yakubu
Saanie Daara
Saanie Daara
Shares
facebook sharing button Share
twitter sharing button Tweet
email sharing button Email
sharethis sharing button Share

As a person who formerly worked for the BBC, I am deeply worried about the recent drop in standards at the world's best journalism hub particularly the Africa section.

Certainly the BBC Editorial Policy and Standards of Journalism preached by the BBC College of Journalism has not been demonstrated in the piece I have seen this evening.

If I am to compare to what I have seen on BBC 5 Live and Panorama and this BBC Africa Eye team shows some desire from the current editors of the programme to chase numbers at a time the BBC's influence is waning in Africa thus - editors - wanting to stay relevant, embark on totally exaggerated adventures to keep their positions because of the falling numbers.

READ ALSO: There was no 'Sex for grades' in the BBC documentary - UG anti-sexual harassment c’ttee

1. To say sex-for-grades, by no stretch of the English language, means lecturers sleeping with students to give them marks they don't deserve. In this Prof Gyampo issue, this has not been proven so it's a clickbait. We can deal with the other aspects but in this sex-for-grades thingy, the BBC has gone against its own editorial policy of not exaggerating.

2. Has anyone noticed that Nigeria and Ghana are the main targets of the BBC Africa Eye team? Why not Burkina Faso, Benin, Algeria, Egypt, and the others? Nigeria and Ghana are among the top five countries that provide the audiences for the BBC World Service. So all the scandalous or damaging stories on Africa will be focused on these countries. Does that mean no crimes or scandals happen in other African countries too?

These thoughts don't excuse any harassment that might have been faced by the ladies.

READ ALSO: BBC Sex for grades: I will teach BBC a lesson - Prof. Gyampo

 Source: Ibrahim Saanie Daara| Former BBC staff