BBC Climate Disinformation Reporter Attacks Kenyan Farmer
By Thi Thuy Van Dinh, Brownstone Institute.
On 15th June 2024, the BBC Climate disinformation reporter Marco Silva published a hit piece on the Kenyan farmer Jusper Machogu, entitled “How a Kenyan farmer became a champion of climate change denial.” The reporter claims that Mr Machogu, a 29-year-old farmer with many thousands of followers on X for his campaign “Fossil Fuels for Africa,” holds dangerous views denying climate change.
I don’t personally know Mr Machogu, and I am certain that he doesn’t need defense. I grew up without electricity and I recently explained how I questioned the official climate narrative. I do find it extremely disgusting that a senior journalist sitting in Greater London, using daily modern technologies powered by fossil fuels, in a country that became rich thanks to fossil fuels (and loot from Kenya), should write such a disdainful piece on one of the biggest media outlets on earth about a young man who appears to have knowledge, hard work, and passion to serve his community and people. I also find this piece below the BBC’s editorial standards which include values such as truth, fairness, accuracy, and impartiality.
The reporter chose to make ad hominem attacks on Mr Machogu throughout the piece. It is stupid for a journalist of a global broadcasting company based in one of the richest places on earth to write statements like these: “On social media, he (Mr Machogu) has become known as flag bearer for fossil fuels in Africa, but there is more to his campaign that meets the eye,” “Mr Machogu’s new-found popularity,” and “Mr Machogu began tweeting false and misleading claims about climate change in late 2021, after carrying out his “own research” into the topic.”
Clearly, the reporter doesn’t seem to think that Mr Machogu has the right to carry out his own research and make tweets about that. I don’t understand why a BBC journalist can have freedom of expression but a Kenyan farmer cannot.
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