The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has threatened to fire one of its media monitoring staff over peace advocacy that he carried out in South Sudan, according to a warning letter to the staff member.

Akol Miyen Kuol held poetry events in Juba and in Nairobi, which were covered by various South Sudanese media including The Niles, The Dawn, and Radio Tamazuj, which broadcast about the launch event in Juba and featured his poetry in its weekly e-newsletter TheMIX.

The launch event in Juba was attended by a number of South Sudanese youths, artists, journalists and intellectuals.

Afterwards, the BBC Monitoring Africa Unit, which employs Akol, summoned Akol to a disciplinary meeting on 14 April and also issued two warning letters to him over his advocacy.

In a warning letter dated 16 May, BBC Regional Manager Alice Martin stated that Akol's statements as reported by South Sudanese media “appeared to be political and activist in nature, which could be in conflict with your contract of employment and the BBC Kenya Employee Handbook.”

She referred specifically to a report in The Dawn newspaper, in which Akol expressed “disappointment over impediments in peace implementation, urging both the government and SPLM-IO to own peace, saying 'since [the] agreement was between South Sudanese and South Sudanese it will never be a bad peace.'”

Martin's letter notes, “We debated at length the issue of whether in publicly advocating peace you were engaged in political activity. On this we agreed to disagree. It is my view that, irrespective of whether you promote one side or another, the mere fact of advocating peace may be perceived to be criticism of the existing government, notwithstanding your belief that it is neutral.”

The BBC official concluded that the incident “amounted to misconduct,” warning that any further instance of misconduct would likely lead to dismissal with immediate effect.

The letter concludes in part, “I remain concerned Akol that the current situation cannot continue and that your peace advocacy on a very public stage is not consistent with your role as a BBC journalist.”

BBC Monitoring is part of the BBC World Service Group. It employs around 370 people with offices in Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the USA and the UK. BBC is one of many international media organizations that have policies prohibiting or limiting the involvement of their staff members in political or advocacy activities.

Akol's poem "The Last Train" can be downloaded in PDF format at the link below.

Photos: Radio Tamazuj, 29 March 2016