BBC News Africa, Where Is The Investigation?

What has been alleged against the late leader of the Synagogue Church Of All Nation in a BBC undercover investigation can either be true or false.

That is exactly my problem with the current investigative work titled ‘The Disciples: the cult of TB Joshua’.

The BBC uncovered nothing new beyond the allegations from former employees against their boss. Even if the Nigerian cleric was not dead and he offered his side of the story, and the BBC published it along with what was earlier served the world, it still would not have passed for undercover investigative journalistic work.

This writer took the trouble to watch several minutes of the documentary based on the seriousness of the issues raised in the film.

Allegations of repetitive rape, recurring violence against women, enslavement, forced abortions, public deception and negligence leading to mass deaths must trouble every man of conscience.

Even concerning was the fact that these dastardly acts have been raised against a pastor of international repute, who owes a duty of care to his accusers.

I could not have been indifferent to something this grave as I believe that no effort must be spared to find help and justice for the victims of this crime.

Those involved needed to be punished severely even if posthumously.
The involvement of the BBC and Ghana’s celebrated foremost undercover investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas piqued my interest in the subject.

So for several minutes of primetime, I kept watching the documentary waiting to see what the BBC undercover investigation would uncover.

I kept waiting until the first tape ended. I went for the second recording. It also ended without telling us what the BBC had established independently of the allegations. But there was a third video too. It also had as many allegations as the first two against TB Joshua. Nothing more.

In summary, the undercover investigation lines up several persons purporting to have previously been in the employment of TB Joshua. BBC puts a camera on them and allows them to make allegations against their former boss.

“What is news about former employees accusing their bosses of one wrong or the other?” I heard myself saying, after feeling very cheated and my time wasted at the end of watching.

It reminded me of a play written in 1953. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, details the Salem witch trials that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail, the main character in the play, manipulates the Puritan town’s anti-witch fervor to destroy John Proctor, her former employer who once had an affair with her.

May be I am out of date but is this the new standard of undercover investigative journalism; I mean to put the camera on anybody and offer them a blank cheque to defame others?

How would the BBC feel if the tables were turned and another person made this accusation against it or any of their staff without any effort to establish the veracity of the claims?

I agree with the Synagogue Church of All Nations when it says to the BBC that
“To investigate and publish or broadcast report is a central kernel in journalism But to do this outside the ethics and fundamental principles of the profession is an aberration. Journalism as societal watchdog requires fairness, balancing and objectivity to command dignity honour and respect as the fourth estate of the realm.”

I am sorry but this is not what it means to give a voice to the voiceless or protect the weak against a predator.

Source: Benjamin Akyena Brantuo/Journalist/ Author/Social Worker: [email protected]