WardheerNews is one of the media outlets I usually like to visit at least once or twice a day to see the views of my Somali compatriots and foreign writers on Somali affairs. I have been following up the journey of WardheerNews from its early days and it is my view that it has unequivocally grown into a unique common ground for debate. I expressed this in a short opinion I wrote on their first anniversary under the title “WardheerNews leaves Anna Waa-i-Kan websites in the trail”.

Since then WardheerNews has never disappointed me neither with their reporting nor with their editorial line. They strived to stand for journalistic integrity in a community where integrity and credibility is a rare currency, where tribalism reigns supreme and every opinion and news item is viewed from the jaundiced perspective of tribal interest.

This does not mean that WardheerNews does not have its critics. Yes, it has and on genuine cases at times. Many Somalilanders may take my positive assessment of it with a pinch of salt as they view WardheerNews as a hostile media outlet that whips sentiments against Somaliland’s quest for being a separate state. It is true that the majority of WardheerNews opinion contributors are people who are against the disintegration of Somalia into what they call tribal enclaves, but to balance its reportage, WardheerNews also publishes articles that are supportive of Somaliland cause.

The core of the truth, however, is that WardheerNews is a unionist media outlet and whether this is on tribal basis or on patriotic grounds is beyond the scope of my piece but it is the right of every media channel to have its editorial stances on crucial issues. Anyone who cares to read the American media can see the great divide of the media on liberal and conservative grounds. It is therefore true that educated and experienced journalists would be better equipped to hide their sentiments and cover issues with certain degree of professionalism, but they cannot hide for long. An acute observer would always be able to pinpoint the real political orientation and agenda of the writer.

Journalism had its good old days when objectivity was observed as a sacred creed. But as we all have seen and witnessed the world of journalism has changed after 9/11. Objectivity has taken the backseat and FOX News and Al Jazeera had led the way to usher in a new age of interest driven and jaundiced journalism. Reading and watching news these days one cannot but recall Connie Miller’s description of objectivity which says: “Objectivity has about as much substance as the emperor’s clothes.”

It was therefore rather exciting to read an excellent article written by Abdelkarim Hassan, one of WardheerNews editors, under the title “Somali Media: Ethics, Truth and Integrity”.  But it was unfortunate to see the writer ruin what otherwise would have been a very good analysis about Somali media by letting his emotions cloud his judgement. I was to give the piece a five-star rating until I reached the point where Mr. Hassan brought in the story of Fathia Absie’s departure from VOA. He was describing how the American media had become Bush’s mouthpiece during the Iraq war and how Al Jazeera had become a desired alternative outlet. But all of a sudden Mr. Hassan descended from his lofty pedestal of objectivity and integrity and muddled the clarity of his grand vision by trampling on the standards that he was trying to defend. He did not only relate what he himself admitted to be an alleged claim of Ms. Absie accusing Mr. Abdirahman Yebarow of politicizing the service and turning it into a clan entity but he endorsed the claim by emphasizing that  “Surely listeners of the service will notice her departure.” This is a politically loaded statement and is out of tune with the general theme of the article. Being a Somali myself and looking at things through the same prism as Mr. Hassan or any other Somali for that matter no matter how much we try to claim otherwise, I immediately suspected that Mr. Hassan’s sole objective of writing this piece was to slander Mr. Yabarow for reasons that are obvious to the Somali audience. I have nothing against Ms. Absie and in fact I recently read a poem she wrote “Hearts Desire” and admired it, but as far as I know Ms. Absie is not the first broadcaster to leave VOA and she would not be the last. There were other well-known veteran newsmen such as Cawke and Abdisalam Hereri who left both the BBC and VOA. And although Hereri has since then returned to VOA, I never heard him nor Cawke accuse Yabarow of running VOA as a tribal enclave. In addition to that VOA is U.S. government institution and I would assume there are channels open for everyone to submit their complaints and grievances. It is therefore my belief that trying to settle scores with Mr. Yabarow in the Somali way of tribalizing the issue and rallying alliances will only strengthen Mr. Yabarow’s hand. And Mr. Hassan would have been more objective if he picked up the phone and asked Mr. Yabarow side of the story. Giving equal weight to both sides of the story is a paramount rule in objectivity. But it is obvious that Mr. Hassan has thought it was enough to relate the side of the story that was to his liking.

In addition to the above misstep, I also noticed that all the reference materials that Mr. Hassan used to support his arguments have come from writings of his brothers, Ahmed Hassan & Khalil Hassan, and the contributors of WardheerNews. There is nothing wrong in using the works of your brothers’ and the contributors to your website as a reference or even citing your own work to support your point, but when the writers you quote are all your siblings and people who write on your own website, won’t that make you look like blowing your own horn. It may be appropriate here to remind Mr. Hassan that Somalis despite all their objectivity problems, have their yardstick for objectivity when it comes to checking self-centredness and they call it: “Nin is faanshay, waa ri’ is nuugtay.” And this is obviously another objectivity standard that Mr. Hassan has broken.