Paid for by the British taxpayer, the service is still financed from the Foreign Office budget, but the latter, very properly, exercises no direct control over programmes. It is assumed that the professional standards of the broadcasters concerned will ensure neutral news reporting. The Somali programme used to be regularly monitored by a non-B.B.C. Somali speaker (at one time Professor B. W. Andrzejewski). But this sensible control seems to have been discontinued, presumably to save money.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 932