{Mr. Richard Mgamba, the Managing Editor of Tanzania’s leading English Newspaper, The Citizen, has sharply criticized the BBC’s lack of professional journalistic ethics in the production of the controversial documentary “Rwanda’s Untold Story.” }
The veteran Tanzanian investigative journalist was appearing before the five-member Inquiry Committee on the documentary this Thursday as an independent professional media practitioner who has been in the trade for the past twenty years.
In his analysis, he told the Committee that BBC mainly relied on hostile sources and never took time to verify their claims, yet the documentary contains very strong assertions about the genocide and makes equally strong allegations against President Paul Kagame and RPF as a political organization.
Mgamba questioned the credibility of the information given by people who have fallen out with the Rwandan government, and said professionally, if one is to use such hostile sources, the information must be vigorously cross-checked from other reliable sources, which the BBC failed to do.
“If a woman divorced her husband, would this woman be a very reliable source about the behavior of the ex-husband without verification?” Mgamba marveled.
The Tanzanian veteran journalist said in journalism, one doesn’t believe in whatever is said as the gospel truth, until rigorous verification is carried out and stressed this is the cardinal guiding principle in the trade, which the BBC never did.
He reminded the Inquiry Committee that despite the press freedom and free speech enshrined in various national constitutions and international conventions on human rights, the same legal instruments also protect the dignity and privacy of other individuals. Therefore no professional journalist should violate peoples’ dignity and privacy in the name of press freedom and free speech.
Mr. Mgamba, while dissecting the content of the BBC documentary, stressed that the producer must have treated the subject with much caution since it’s about a serious issue and directly concerns peoples’ lives and not business.
Concluding his testimony before the Inquiry Committee, Mr. Mgamba described the type of journalism depicted in BBC’s documentary as “flying squad” with unverified allegations that is likely to destabilize Rwanda’s security which may act as precursor to possible future violence in the country since it’s questioning the history of genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda.
The documentary has sparked outrage among many people including genocide survivors as well as International scholars and researchers. They accuse the BBC of lack of objectivity and trying to re-write the history of Rwanda.
The Inquiry Committee chaired by the former Rwandan Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga was appointed by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) to look into allegations brought to its attention by various civil society organizations.
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