Daniel Adamson Profile picture
Jun 29 18 tweets 9 min read
It’s been 2 weeks since our ‘Racism for Sale’ investigation dropped and I thought it might be worth sharing some of the fallout. ICYMI the basic story & links to the film are here…

First, a *lot* of ppl watched this film: > 2m on FB, >1.6m on Insta, >1m on YouTube in English & Chinese. Another 750k in Brazil.

This is a story about racist exploitation of kids, and it clearly resonated all over the world. @Lupita_Nyongo shared it too, which never hurts…
People in #Malawi were legitimately outraged...
…so outraged that the Malawian authorities had to respond. The police launched an investigation. So did the government.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs @nancygtembo made a statement to the press: “We are disgusted, disrespected, and deeply pained”
The Chinese embassy in Malawi put out a response…
That didn’t put out the fire. So China's Min of Foreign Affairs (which rarely responds to media stories) used its top Africa diplomat @WuPeng_MFAChina to try and calm things. He put out a statement saying China would “crack down on such racial discrimination videos in the future”
Side note: unfortunately for him, he was scheduled to meet Malawi’s Foreign Minister (the one who was “disgusted, disrespected, and deeply pained”) the next day...
Malawians were still demanding accountability. Days later, the story is still all over the front pages. People are planning a protest march to the Chinese embassy.
.@TheEconomist's chief Africa correspondent @johnpmcdermott nailed the key reason why China’s top Africa diplomat got dragged into this...

On June 20 the police in Zambia say they’ve arrested Lu Ke, the guy who was exploiting these kids. Apparently he tried to flee Malawi across an unofficial border crossing and is now being returned to Malawi to face charges.

bbc.com/news/world-afr…
The demos in Lilongwe went ahead anyway. Protesters held signs reading "Child rights are non negotiable"
I heard (though I don’t have this confirmed) that a 6-year-old kid called Bright and his mum, who were exploited by Lu Ke and who featured in our film, were among the people who marched to protest the abuse of Malawian children. This is Bright’s story (from the film)…
In China, despite censorship, the story went around WeChat. Most of the responses we’ve seen deplore the racism shown in the film, call for accountability, & concur that anti-black racism is a problem China has to address. This headline says “Stop Exploiting African Kids”
This investigation wasn't just about one guy. It raised awareness about this industry across the continent, put police & child-protection services on alert in multiple countries, and started a serious conversation about the asymmetries of Chinas engagement with Africa
When we commission and produce these films, we’re always looking for more than just “allegations.” We need to put together evidence so damning it cannot be ignored. That’s what happened here. #BBCAfricaEye #BBCEye
.@RunakoCelina found this story, pitched it, led the investigation online and on the ground, and was instrumental in writing and producing the film. She was helped in Malawi by the great @henrymhango3 . @ChFrancavilla directed and produced the documentary...
.@BardeyGoddie was lead camera in Malawi. @Yaolri led the geolocation and OSINT work, backed by @edward_the6 @Ecostard did the motion GFX & @SVanhooymissen the editing. Massive thanks to our Chinese undercover colleagues who cannot be named #NothingStaysHiddenForever

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More from @danielsilas

Mar 28
In February 2015 Russian politician Boris Nemtsov — a fierce critic of Putin  — was shot dead on a bridge in the shadow of the Kremlin.

Five men were convicted for the murder, but the most urgent questions were never answered: who ordered the hit, and why?
Now, a new film from our team at BBC Eye Investigations, working with @bellingcat and @the_ins_ru, reveals that, in the year running up to the murder, Nemtsov was being shadowed by a government agent linked to a secret assassination squad…
…the same assassination squad that poisoned @navalny
Read 9 tweets
Sep 23, 2020
It’s been an incredible week for our Open Source investigations team at #BBCAfricaEye. A short thread...

First, we saw the killers of these kids jailed in Cameroon
There’s detail on the sentencing here. The three men jailed are the same three named 2 years ago in our original report, plus their commander. Thanks to everyone who was part of this - it was a huge team effort bbc.co.uk/news/world-afr…
We also published this new investigation, which holds Nigeria’s state oil firm (the immensely powerful @NNPCgroup), to account for a devastating explosion in #Lagos that destroyed a school and killed 23 people
Read 8 tweets
Mar 6, 2020
Opportunity for African video journalists, producers, and documentary filmmakers.

We have created a new #BBCAfricaEye training in the art & craft of documentary storytelling.

Thread…
This course is *not* about how to shoot or edit. We’re working with a lot of people who can film and cut beautifully. We also have a network of great investigators and reporters across the continent.

But documentary storytelling…that’s a harder challenge.
The training is about how to find and develop incredible stories, how to imagine them as visual narratives, and how to direct and structure those stories in the field and in the edit.
Read 12 tweets
Mar 3, 2020
Refugee Blues, W.H.Auden, March 1939... 1/6 Image
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, there’s no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
But we cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 4, 2019
One more push for our latest #BBCAfricaEye film - a damning expose of how multinational sports betting companies extract vast amounts of $ from the young, the poor, and the desperate in Uganda. Amazing work by @Zoe_Flood @namlyd & @MuhindaCollins
Thanks to everyone who worked on this in Uganda, and to all the people discussing the film & the issue so thoughtfully online. Comments can be a garbage fire sometimes, but honestly when you do public service journalism these are the kinds of comments that make it worthwhile ImageImageImage
ImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
May 19, 2019
48 hours in NYC which is still, even in its gentrified and hipsterfied state, one of the most fascinating cities in the world Image
This is the ferry to Staten Island, which is free and just runs back and forth across the water all day, right past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty ImageImageImage
I got to see round the @nytimes thanks to the generous welcome of @malachybrowne and @trbrtc. This is the view down 8th Ave ImageImage
Read 9 tweets

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