Billal Ethiopia

Bilal Show soon to be launched!
By negashi, on November 2nd, 2010
Bilal Communication has signed a contract with Ethiopian Broadcasting Service TV (EBS TV) to deliver a two hour program – Bilal Show – a week. According to the public briefing held on November 01, 2010 in a EIFDJ paltalk room the Show will be on air as of 1431 Eid al-Adha (Nov. 17, 2010). The Communication has signed a separate contract with a local media firm – Jayilu (ጀይሉ) Media and Entertainment– for the production of its programs.

While this news might be seen as a positive step forward, it raises different questions of varying depth and complexity. We should be clear here that Ethiopian Muslims need media –media that would articulate their rights, teach their religion and empower them so that they take their responsibility in the affairs of their country. Everybody agrees with me in that what we need is not a media that simply carries a Muslim/Islamic/Arabic names but don't do the real and required job. But what type of media do we have at this moment? How are we setting up our future media so that their continuity and quality is secured?

One immediate inquisition that pops up in our mind as we hear the news of Bilal Show is how wise it is to indulge in another challenge while the existing service had to back down because of problem related to budget. Bilal Radio is suffering from shortage of finance that it had to shrunk its program from one hour to half an hour a day (Bilal Radio Broadcast, Oct. 16, 2010). The shortage of finance as a reason was later played down. It is said that the measure to bring the time from one hour to half an hour was a ploy to stimulate contributors. Otherwise there is fund available to sustain both services. The future will tell the reality.

The other issue that appeared to present a dangerous precedence to future similar endeavors as well as to the cooperation between the Muslims at home and those in the Diaspora is how the issue is handled. In the briefing we were provided with a list of people (we would say all the names that we know of for their various tangible contributions in the affairs of Ethiopian Muslims) who are involved in the endeavor. That maybe true but the way they get involved is a different story. They were threatened to get involved not because they endorsed the initiative but because they feared the consequence should they stayed outside.

Several meetings were conducted to sale the idea and solicit support for the initiative – technical and financial. Most of the meetings were rather tense and critical of the initiative. The delegates failed to indicate the feasibility of the new project as well as how it can be sustained specially financially. Management is another. There is no any plan nor strategy at hand that could satisfy the careful minds of those who see empty adventure as a source of devastation. The inability of the Diaspora Ethiopian Muslim organizations to deliver results to promises (as expressed by the delegation back in 2007) and the devastating effect of several unplanned and unstructured initiatives were lessons for many. Yet the delegation of Bilal Communication were unyielding to demands for more time in discussing the issue and prepare the necessary resources first before going in a new honeymoon. In fact such requests were trivial in the eyes of the Bilal Communication. Only courage can deliver results – no need to spend time and effort in planning or putting appropriate strategy to overcome challenges. Here, one would see a parallel with how Radio Bilal started . We are harvesting the shame in just less than two years.

The other problem for the Bilal Show yet to overcome is to find program makers. The reality is not so rosy as was said in the briefing. Most of the active teachers are shunning the initiative not only because there is no workable plan ready to follow, making thus the prospect for continuity very dim, but also because the service provider (EBS TV) is full of program that carries messages contrary to the teachings of Islam.

The timing and urgency displayed as well as the tactic used to get people on board made the real motive for the initiative questionable. The EBS TV is badly in need of anything that promotes its image as a service provider for a wide spectrum of the Ethiopian community. They have already in-listed the Christians. They found in Bilal Communication an angle to complete that badly needed representation of Muslims. As part of unspecified bonus to its service, Bilal Communication is reported to re-broadcast the two hour program twice.

People who know closely how Bilal radio was started and managed, followed its various programs and informed of its true stand at the present, wonders why its promoters failed to learn from their past mistakes and stand at the verge of repeating them.

The other issue the radio still needs to address is how to reach a bigger audience through increasing the number of listeners and its area of coverage. Unlike what we have been told again and again that the radio is in every body's house, the reality is that it has no that audance nor managed to rais people's interest. This was one of the issues many observers have been raising for some time now and would like to see concrete effort taken to address them. The number of its online visitors has also remained relatively low despite a persistent effort to get a higher number of hits. It is worth considering here again who and how many the beneficiaries of Bilal Show will be.

Nearly 400, 000 USD is said to have been paid out so far for running the Radio Program. It is a matter for every Muslim’s healthy mind to judge if a service matching this huge expense has been delivered.

Accountability, transparency, independence and professionalism are some of the other issues to be addressed if any given media or any other initiative, for that matter, is to be of real service to Ethiopians.

EBS TVis a private media company established in 2008 in Silver Spring, MD, USA. It uses ArabSat to relay its services to Africa and the Middle East with the following details: Frequency – 12073; Polarity – Horizontal; Symbol rate - 27500; EFC – 3/4; PIDS – 309.