Rageh Omaar...What A Man!

[Nazra]

Profile: Rageh Omaar

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our man on the roof

 

Amid bombs and bullets, crippled tanks and toppling statues, the BBC's man in Baghdad has remained cool and calm, lucidly recounting the defeat of Saddam. Little wonder his fan club is growing, here and in the US

 

Vanessa Thorpe

Sunday April 13, 2003

The Observer

 

Confronted by daily news broadcasts that detail the bleakest of human activities - for example, groups of people killing each other - the British public can be relied upon to focus on some bright star in the darkness. In this war that bright star is Rageh Omaar.

The Somalian-born television reporter has been propelled into a high-profile national position with amazing rapidity by the conflict in Iraq. Standing alone on his Baghdad rooftop, awaiting the allied onslaught each evening in early March, he quickly became a household fixture; a still point in the turning world, resplendent in his bright red fleece.

 

As the face of the BBC on the terrestrial channels and on BBC News 24, Omaar's mere location at the eye of an accelerating storm had a drama he did not have to do much to communicate. But recently he has found himself in the thick of it, reporting on the death of colleagues in the hotel he shares with fellow journalists and commentating live on the drawn-out toppling of that recalcitrant statue with an energy and intensity that matched the historic moment.

 

An astonishing 4.3 million viewers tuned into to Omaar as they waited for Saddam's bronze likeness to be pulled over at 3.45pm on BBC1 - that's 48 per cent of the audience share. Since the start of the war on 20 March nearly 90 per cent of the population have watched him on either the weekday BBC news bulletins or on News 24. The reports have been syndicated across the US too.

 

This weekend, not surprisingly then, there are persistent rumours that American news networks are determined to poach him, as they have other British news presenters such as Daljit Dhaliwal, Brent Sadler and Lara Logan. CNN, it is said, has already made an offer, but the BBC are holding hard. 'We are delighted that other people think Rageh is doing as well as we do,' a spokeswoman said this weekend.

 

And there has been fan mail. One elderly headmistress of a girls' school has confessed herself entranced by 'that nice boy', while Ann Treneman was merely the first national journalist to suggest in print that Omaar is the only war reporter who is getting better looking as the conflict progresses. Last month the New York Post dubbed him the 'Scud Stud' of this war (the name was coined during the 1991 Gulf conflict for NBC's Arthur Kent who also wrote regularly for The Observer ). Last week T-shirts bearing Omaar's noble features were printed and sold on the internet as mementos of the war, along, it must be admitted, with rival tops emblazoned with the less inspiring countenance of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, better known as the former Iraqi Information Minister, or Comical Ali.

 

But if Omar has reached the status of cultural icon partly through talent, he has also got there by accident. When news editors planned coverage of the coming conflict they were wary of embedding their big-name journalists with the armed forces. It was feared their output might be controlled by the military. As a result the BBC's big names - John Simpson and Fergal Keane, for example - were held back and placed around the edges.

 

When the fighting started, and particularly after the death of Terry Lloyd, it became clear much of the terrain 'in country' was too dangerous for free-wheeling journalists and news coverage began to rely on those who were 'embedded' outside the big cities and on those, like Omaar, in Baghdad.

 

'Other than in Baghdad and in northern Iraq,' said Richard Sambrook, head of BBC news, 'it's extremely difficult for us to work independently, on safety grounds - as the death of an ITN team showed - so we are inhibited from independent journalism in a way that we weren't during the first [1991] Gulf war.'

 

Of course, Omaar is not the only British journalist in the capital. His radio colleague Andrew Gilligan, the Today programme's defence and diplomatic correspondent, has also been heavily employed, most notably when he was fired at live on-air a few days ago. Others have also been prominent, for instance, David Chater of Sky News and Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News , who made a memorable visit to a hospital visit outside Baghdad early on. Print journalists have also made their mark in and around Baghdad, notably the war veteran Robert Fisk of the Independent, Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian and Anton Antonowicz of the Mirror .

 

Yet it is Omaar and, increasingly, his colleague Gilligan who have been at the centre of another virtual battle, the infamous tug of war for hearts and minds. As representatives of British state-funded media they have been criticised for being mouthpieces of both the Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation and the Bush Broadcasting Corporation. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Omaar said he chuckled when he heard pundits deploring an 'Iraqi bias' in Baghdad bulletins. 'If only they could spend a day with us in the press centre at Iraq's Ministry of Information in Baghdad, which was heavily bombed last night,' he wrote. 'Yes, there are daily briefings by Iraqi Ministers and carefully organised trips for journalists in the presence of Ministry officials. But by putting such severe restrictions on where we are allowed to set up our broadcasting equipment, the regime ensures that many reports that they so diligently help us to gather are simply never sent out.'

 

Sensitivities reached their height with regard to Omaar when Centcom in Qatar claimed troops who fired on the Palestine Hotel and killed two television journalists were responding to enemy fire. Omaar was among those who testified that no sniper fire had been heard.

 

Support for his performance from editors in London has been swift and total. Jonathan Baker, the BBC's Worldwide editor, told The Observer this weekend that one of Omaar's strengths was his depth of knowledge. 'Rageh has been reporting from the country on and off for more than six years and has spent several months there in the last year alone,' said Baker. 'As a result he speaks with a knowledge and authority which other writers less well-versed in Iraqi affairs and history cannot match.'

 

Baker also praised his skills as a communicator. 'He has the classic virtues of the BBC foreign correspondent,' he added. 'Commitment to the story over a period, even-handedness in his reporting, and an ability to impart extra value to his coverage with explanations and analysis when required.'

 

Omaar, who lives in Johannesburg when he isn't posted elsewhere, gains some of his insight from three months spent studying Arabic in Jordan in 1996. He was born in Mogadishu on 19 July 1967 and is the youngest of four children. Moving to Britain as a child, he went to Cheltenham Boys College and on to Oxford where he studied Modern History.

 

He started out in journalism as a trainee at the Voice newspaper in Brixton and then worked for a short spell on the now-defunct London magazine City Limits, before moving to Ethiopia in 1991 where he freelanced for the BBC World Service.

 

He returned to London the following year as a producer for Focus on Africa based in Bush House, home of the World Service, and then became producer/reporter on Newshour. After a period as the BBC's Amman correspondent in 1997, he covered the drought in Ethiopia and the floods in Mozambique as Developing World correspondent.

 

Omaar's current title is Africa Correspondent, which is why he lives in South Africa with his wife Nina, a former occupational therapist and the daughter of Sir John and Lady Montgomery Cuninghame.

 

The couple met at a wedding in India and now have two children, Loula, aged two, and a baby son called Sami.

 

BBC sources suggest that he may well be seeing them all for the first time in more than six months this weekend. He is believed to be taking some well-deserved rest and recuperation, although he may find he is now more widely recognised in the streets of Jo'burg than he could ever have predicted.

 

Colleagues have nothing but generous things to say about this journalist who remained cool and patient as the armed forces closed in, and then got appropriately excited when the people of Baghdad threw their shoes at the fallen dictator's bronze effigy. Aside from being a reporter with integrity, Omaar, like the BBC's Clive Myrie, is proving an inspirational figure for young black reporters.

 

'The Rageh you see on screen and hear on the radio is an exact match to the person you meet off-air,' says his boss Baker. 'Unassuming, unaffected, committed to his job and a thoroughly nice man.'

 

RAGEH OMAAR

 

 

DoB: 19 July 1967 (Mogadishu, Somalia)

 

Family: Lives in Johannesburg with his wife Nina. They have one daughter and one son

 

Education: Cheltenham Boys College and Oxford

 

First job: With the Voice newspaper in Brixton

 

Heroes: George Alagiah, Charles Wheeler, Robert Fisk, Trevor McDonald

 

I'm On A Quest To be His Second Wife.

[Nazra]

Special report: Iraq - the media war

Rageh Omaar wins it for BBC in Baghdad

 

Ben Barnabas

Monday April 14, 2003

The Guardian

 

It is not just the military who are returning to a hero's welcome - the BBC's Baghdad reporter Rageh Omaar arrived back in Britain yesterday widely regarded as having won the journalistic battle of Baghdad for the broadcaster.

 

BBC bosses praised their new star as rumours emerged that American news networks had their sights on recruiting the Somalian-born reporter.

 

From his common vantage point on the rooftop of the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad, Omaar quickly became the face of the Iraqi conflict for the British public.

 

Liberated from his Iraqi minders last Wednesday, Omaar won 48% of the 4.3 million British viewers in the defining moment of the fall of the regime - when the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad was pulled down.

 

Since the start of the war nearly 90% of the population have watched him on either the weekday BBC news bulletins or on News 24. Many of his broadcasts have been syndicated across the US, where The Washington Post labelled him the "Scud Stud" within a week of the first American missile hitting Baghdad.

 

Rumours are now rife that the Johannesburg-based married father of one will follow British correspondent Lara Logan, who was snapped up to report for CNN last year.

 

The BBC will be delighted by the plaudits its correspondent is receiving after a war in which it has been attacked by the government at times for its coverage.

 

Omaar's colleague, Radio 4's Andrew Gilligan, was targeted by Downing Street after reporting the day after the regime fell that Baghdadis were experiencing their "first days of freedom in more fear than they have ever known before".

 

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Omaar, 36, said he had chuckled when he heard pundits deploring an "Iraqi bias" in Baghdad bulletins.

 

"Yes, there are daily briefings by Iraqi ministers and carefully organised trips for journalists in the presence of ministry officials," he wrote.

 

"But by putting such severe restrictions on where we are allowed to set up our broadcasting equipment, the regime ensures that many reports that they so diligently help us to gather are simply never sent out."

[PlayMaker]

Wow nasra, easy now lol.....I did not know who he was before this, but i am proud of him and i am proud he is one of us!

 

Job well Done!

[Ibtisaam]

Nasra girl you are not the only on a quest to be his second wife...so step aside . Na am only kidding girl you can have him all to yourself, good luck on your mission though .

 

Anyways back to the topic, Rageh Omaar is just absolutely a fabulous reporter, he is the only reason i watch the BBC news because he tells the story like it is and doesn't twist and turn the story around.

[Shakuur99]

Honestly, before I leave the house about 7am in the morning I watch the BBC (one of the local channels broadcasts live half hour of BBC here in the States).. While am getting ready it is on hoping my fellow countryman will come up... I have also heard his sister was/is in the Journalism industry, do you guyz know any thing about it? (didn't read the whole thing)..

Question to the Ladies... Why are you guys always say he is my husband/am going to get married to him when ever you see a successful man? I know some of you R joking but I think you guys don't admit but are materialistic.....Plus he seems to be married to a non-somali woman with the name of one of his kids Sam. Wonder if his wife is Muslim!

Later my peeps

[shyhem]

Indeed we have come along way,so far no somali is claiming he belongs to my qabil,i'm indeed surprised at the rate in which we are developing mentally.

[Nazra]

LoL, shakuur...u have a point there.

 

A man who is successful is a man who shares the same views as me.

Not to mention he is HOT, but then agian, he's only attractive due the fact that he's educated.

Men whom are talented and successful..somehow appear to me.

His english :eek: , though i am half his age and grew up here, still not the same standards as him. WOW!

 

About his other wife, soon i will be ripping her apart,....is she an Indian or English?

 

The names of his kids, only indicate TWO things...

1) His Wife hasn't converted yet

2) he ain't that religious

 

beats me, i still want him.

 

Oh Rageh!

[Shakuur99]

Nazra you said "beats me, i still want him"... Wonder why am not surprised... am sure many of you who are claiming that you will not share another woman/women with your husbund still would go for a successful man..... Surely they are right when Somali's say "Naag been ayaa lagusoo xero geliyaa run-na waa lagu dhaqaa",,, From now on ama have to start lying and tell them I have (5 gaari iyo labo aqal) A.K.A (gaari gacan iyo baraako)...

Later

[Nazra]

lol, it should work in most cases.