BBC World Service Amharic and Tigrigna Programmes Continuing Bias Against the People of Tigray, Ethiopia

1.      We, Mekete Tigray UK, are an independent community association of Tigrayan Diaspora in the UK, set up to promote human rights and peace in Tigray, Ethiopia. We are writing this letter to complain yet again about the editorial policy of BBC World Service Amharic and Tigrigna programmes, which are consistently biased against the people of Tigray in Ethiopia. We have written in the past to the Chairperson of the BBC Board, Mr Richard Sharp, and the Director General, Mr Tim Davie, and have demonstrated several times in front of the BBC Headquarters to demand fair, accurate, balanced coverage and reporting of the crisis in Tigray.

2.      Whilst the BBC Amharic and Tigrigna programmes, both the Online News and Radios, report extensively on a wide range of issues occurring in Ethiopia, the programmes deliberately and persistently omit major newsworthy issues pertaining to the crisis in Tigray.    Specifically, we are referring to the New Lines Institute of Strategy and Policy Report on the war in Tigray which came out on 3 June 2024.  “Genocide in Tigray: Serious breaches of international law in the Tigray conflict, Ethiopia, and paths to accountability” (New Lines Institute Report, 3 June 2024)

3.      More than three years since the start of the Genocidal War in Tigray on 2 November 2020, the New Lines Institute – a non-partisan global think tank based in Washington, DC – has  conclusively and specifically established after two years of research and analysis involving  experts on humanitarian law and genocide, that the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies and the Amhara Regional Forces have committed  genocide,  ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Tigray. This is notwithstanding that all parties to the conflict have committed war crimes. Characterised as the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the 21st  Century, the genocidal war has claimed  over 1 million  Tigrayan lives, the sexual violence against 120,000  Tigrayan women and girls,  weaponisation of  hunger and starvation as a strategy of war, and the destruction of 85% of Tigray’s social fabric, economy and infrastructure. This landmark report follows  the UN Human Rights Council sponsored report by the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) Report (2023), the US Department of State Report (2023, 2024)) the UK Parliament Tigray Inquiry Report (2023), the Yale  University Law School Report (2023), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Reports (2020, 2021, 2022, 2024)  that  established  the commission of  mass atrocities crimes  including ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war  crimes in Tigray. Yet, the above catalogued reports received scant attention by BBC Amharic and Tigrigna programmes.

4.      Such was the global newsworthy of the report by the New Lines Institute, it was reported amongst others by: ABC News, MSN News, CNN, Al Jazeera,  Yahoo News,  Reuters, AP, The Globe and Mail, Financial Times, The New Humanitarian, Worldpress.Com, The National Interest, I Africa, Africa Equity Media, Medafrica Times, Radio Alabama,  Delta Daily Newspaper, Observer Diplomat, The East Africa Daily, Somali Times, The North Africa Post, Reddit, HRW and so on.  Yet not a word from BBC Amharic or Tigrigna.

5.      Yet careful monitoring of the BBC World Service Amharic and Tigrigna Online News and Radio broadcasts for the period 3 -7 June 2024 show there is no mention of the New Lines Institute Report on the war in Tigray that claimed a genocide have been committed against the people of Tigray. On what ground does a major report on genocide by a major institution led by internationally recognised legal experts and based on two years of study and research is considered not newsworthy by BBC Amharic and Tigrigna? Why do the BBC Amharic and Tigrigna programmes believe the people of Tigray and Ethiopians in general do not deserve to know about this report? Is this not a deliberate suppression of information that affected the lives of millions of Tigrayans? Is this not consistent with previous BBC Amharic and Tigrigna editorial policy of not reporting on pertinent issues regarding the conflict in Tigray. For example, in the past we complained when the BBC Amharic and Tigrigna Services failed to report the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Patriarch’s statement on the genocidal war against the people of Tigray. which was then globally reported.

6.      The scant coverage of the genocidal war in Tigray and its consequences by the BBC World Service pales into insignificance when compared and contrasted with the saturated news coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine or the Middle East. It appears  to the BBC World Service  that Tigrayan, Ethiopian or African lives matter less.

7.      We humbly demand the BBC World Service, in particular the Amharic and Tigrigna Programmes, to stand by the BBC’s core values of impartiality, accuracy, fairness and factual reporting with no distortion or bias. Tigrayans all over the world demand the BBC maintains a high journalistic and moral standard as it did in the 1984 famine in Tigray and Ethiopia at large.

8.      We have attached, for your information, the New Lines Institute  Summary and Full Report on the Tigray Genocide published on 3 June 2024, The UN Human Rights Council International Human Rights Experts  on Ethiopia Report on  mass atrocity crimes  committed in Tigray (2023), The UK Parliament Tigray Inquiry Report (2023) and the Yale University Law School Report on the Conflict in Tigray (2023). We have also attached a copy of a hard copy posted to the BBC Board Chairman.

9.      Finally, we thank you for your time and attention, and trust that the BBC reports the genocidal war in Tigray objectively, with due coverage and without bias. The Petitioners of this Letter – Ethiopian Tigrayans in the UK – can be contacted at the above-referred Email and Address. Thank you.

Most respectfully,

Mekete Tigray UK

(Community of Tigrayan Diaspora in the UK)