The BBC, whose prestige towers all international media organizations, retracted its report in which it claimed to have evidence that during the 1985 drought aid was diverted to purchase arms as a baseless and inappropriate broadcast. By its own statement, the BBC had to apologize to Sir Bob Geldof who, at the time, was the chief organizer of Band Aid.

As much as Sir Bob Geldof deserve apology, it is a strange oversight that the apology did not extend to all those who were maligned by the BBC report. At the very least Ethiopia and the Ethiopian government should have been included in the BBC’s apologies for the smear campaign they suffered at the hands of irresponsible reporters. All the more so because the BBC has not stopped issuing unverified information about diversion of food aid for political ends in Ethiopia.

On this occasion, while encouraged by the fact that the BBC has accepted partial responsibility for its mistakes, the Ethiopian government would like to remind the likes of Human Rights Watch to refrain from fabricating similar white lies which they are eventually bound to retract in embarrassment.

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Nov 04, 2010

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