In what has been called “unprecedented” in the history of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Hausa, at least nine journalists with the BBC Hausa Service in Nigeria have left their positions in the past month.
According to Daily Trust, it was gathered that the affected staff members comprised two senior digital journalists, three social media journalists – two of whom are senior reporters – a senior bilingual reporter for Hausa/English Africa, a multimedia reporter and two video journalists.
While five of the journalists left in December of last year, it was learned that the remaining four quit their jobs on Monday to join the newly founded Africa unit of Turkish Radio and Television in Istanbul.
“This is unprecedented in the history of BBC Hausa. Nine journalists of BBC Hausa have joined soon-to-be-launch TRT Hausa after the Turkish government decided to establish TRT Africa: Hausa, Swahili, French and English for Africa,” a source stated.
According to the source, prominent digital journalist Nasidi Adamu Yahaya, who recently left, will lead TRT’s Hausa service, with senior journalists Halima Umar Saleh and Ishaq Khalid serving as his assistants.
Under the condition of anonymity, one of the journalists responded that the Turkish media’s determination to portray upbeat stories about Africa was the main factor in the mass resignation.
He said, “TRT wants us to change the narrative of storytelling. Other international media organisations have been reporting mainly hunger, wars and other negative narratives about Africa. There are good, positive stories in Africa – business and employment opportunities. There are cultural values, sports, innovations; people that are involved in artificial intelligence-related work. These are what TRT Hausa Service will be covering. Many international media are not reporting these things.
“We’re not saying we’re not going to report Boko Haram, banditry and others, but we have other positive stories. There are human angle stories on Boko Haram. We want to give Africans voices. People should be heard about their positive stories; not just negative stories always.”
