NFA Boss, Juliet Asante fires BBC News for misrepresenting Idris Elba's story on moving to Africa

Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante, Convener of the Africa Cinema Summit (ACS) and CEO of the National Film Authority of Ghana, has publicly criticised BBC News for its coverage of Idris Elba's recent interview.

During the Africa Cinema Summit 2024, held in Accra recently, Idris Elba announced plans to move to Ghana and promote African cinema. 

However, BBC News' report failed to acknowledge the summit, instead describing it as an "industry event in Accra."

Miss Asante expressed disappointment and frustration, stating, "It's disingenuous for a global and trustworthy channel like BBC News to not give credit where it's due." 

She also disclosed that the summit organisers had provided the platform for the interview and shouldn’t be disrespected in that way.

Asante also questioned BBC News' geographical accuracy, pointing out that if Idris Elba had announced plans to move to the UK, they would have specified the country, not simply "Europe.

"We invite you, give you the biggest scoop, and you can't even acknowledge our effort?" Asante asked.

She wrote on Facebook, ”A couple of weeks back, we had the #africacinemasummit in Ghana 🇬🇭 at which the headliner was #IdrisElba… 

We invited the channel with other channels to have a one on one with Idris, as part of the agenda, as Idris is a son of the land and a promotor of African cinema. We set up a place for the interview, made time and give them a chair and room for the interview…

During the interview, Idris, makes a number of announcements… including that he is a ‘Ga boy’ and that he is looking to move to Ghana and offcourse, be present in all of Africa… let’s not forget that he is both Ghanaian and Sierra Leonian…

The interview comes out and first, they mention ‘Africa’ as it is one country!!! My question… he had said I will move to the Uk, will they have said Idris plans to move to Europe? Or will they have said he plans to move to Great Britain?… fair enough…

But what really gets to me is that they didn’t even have the dignity to say that he made these comments at the #Acs2024 but they say that he made the comments at an ‘industry event in Accra’!!! Really!!!!? Not intending comparisons but this is truly disrespectful of the summit and the effort. If you had interviewed him at Cannes, would you have said ‘industry event in France?! Or where ever? 

We invite you and give you the biggest scoop! This article was the most read article when it came out on your platform and you can’t even give credit where credit is due? 

Fair enough… you don’t need to mention the National Film Authority of Ghana or our partners, Silverbird Ghana or the #Nilegroup that worked so hard to get make this happen… but to not mention the Africa cinema summit is disingenuous at best for such a global and trustworthy channel… 

And to the Ghanaian channel that are also publishing the article without the right acknowledgments… this is how we all get vanished in the end… including yourself 

I am choosing to voice out my thoughts on this matter, as it truly speaks to a bigger issue!… and let’s all take a moment to ponder what that bigger issue is… 

I have said my piece 🙏🏾

- Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante 

Convener - Africa Cinema Summit and ceo of the National film Authority of Ghana 🇬🇭(sic).

This years’ Africa Cinema Summit took place from October 7-10 and has Idris Elba as headline artiste.