{Dr. Andrew Wallis, a British academic, researcher and journalist has categorically accused the BBC of failure to adhere to its own principles of impartiality, accuracy and fairness in the production and airing of the documentary “Rwanda’s Untold Story.”}
Dr. Wallis, who has widely researched and published about the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, was testifying before the five-member Inquiry Committee on the BBC’s documentary this Thursday.
In his presentation Dr. Wallis said BBC’s Jane Corbin gave a one-sided narration of the genocide that is very different from what other BBC reporters had produced at the time of genocide and during the 20th Commemoration of the genocide in 2013.
Dr Wallis then wondered: “Should the public now trust the BBC of Fergal Keane and Mark Doyle [who reported the genocide] or the BBC of Jane Corbin and John Conway”?
Fergal Keane and Mark Doyle are seasoned BBC reporters who were in Rwanda during the genocide and extensively reported from the ground telling the world how the genocide was unfolding targeting Tutsis and moderate opposed to the genocidal ideology.
Wallis also told the Commission that, as an institution, the BBC has enormous human resource, individuals who reported genocide and who are more knowledgeable that Jane Corbin could have checked with before reporting a on sided narrative that negates the genocide. That she didn’t do so, it means she had an agenda and the documentary nothing more than a piece of work with immense propaganda value that serves the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) of Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa.
In his analysis, Dr. Wallis told the Committee that had BBC adhered to its ethical editorial principles, it would have allocated equal time to those he described as “long time opponents of President Paul Kagame’ and neutral individuals with no interest other than telling the story as it is.
Dr. Wallis criticized Jane Corbin for not challenging unfounded and unverifiable views from her interviewees, yet they habour certain animosity towards the present government and have their own political agendas. He cited an example of Marie Bamutesa, of the interviewees in the controversial documentary who was twelve years at the time of genocide and causally claims that only 10% of Interahamwe militias were involved in the killings while RPF forces were killing all Interahamwe.
He went on to say that, that “Jane Corbin took it at face value and never challenged her to substantiate her claim” is something that no impartial journalist would do.
“The primary objective of BBC’s documentary… is to undermine and politically embarrass the Rwandan government and more particularly President Paul Kagame and to get UK aid cut. It was a reminder to [British] viewers that UK tax payers give millions of pounds to Rwanda annually”, the British academic and journalist stressed.
Since its broadcast on BBC2 early October this year, 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 country’s history.
Dr. Andrew Wallis is an academic based at Cambridge University in UK. He is also a researcher who specializes in Central and East Africa. He is the author of “Silent Accomplice: The Untold Story of the Role of France in the Rwandan Genocide.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Inquiry Committee into BBC documentary “Rwanda’s Untold Story” has reminded members of the public that they are free to contact the Committee if they have anything relevant they want to share with the probe team. However, Mr. Martin Ngoga said the Committee retains the right to choose who to hear depending on how relevant the information is to its mandate. In a related development, an inside source says Prof. Filip Reyntjens has requested the probe committee to appear before it saying BBC never reported correctly what he told them in the documentary. But, according to the source, the Committee has turned down his demand because it finds him irrelevant as far as it mandate is concerned, saying if he has any grievance he should address it to the BBC.
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