Forsyth saga
Sir: My attention has been drawn to the review of The Biafra Story (2 August) in which Auberon Waugh alleges that 'the BBC'S Africa Service continues to this day as one of the main propaganda vehicles for Gowon's regime in Lagos'.
The BBC'S Service for Africa is no dif- ferent from any other BBC Service in that in its reports on the Nigerian civil war it strives continuously to give an objective assessment of the progress of the war as re- flected by all information currently avail- able from either side. Auberon Waugh's statement makes strange reading when it is remembered that for a short time earlier this year the Nigerian Federal government withdrew all facilities from the BBC on the grounds that the BBC was biased in favour of Biafra. After normal relations had been resumed, Peter Stewart, the sec's corres- pondent in Nigeria, was deported by the Federal authorities. No official reason was given for this deportation but the fact that the Nigerian press and radio accused Peter Stewart of disseminating rebel false propa- ganda hardly indicates that they view the BBC'S Africa Service, for which Peter Stew- art was regularly reporting, as being one of their main propaganda vehicles.
I. F. Wilkinson Head of African Service, BBC. Bush House. London WC2
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