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Kari Blackburn
Jul 5^th, 2007, 3:46pm

This is taken from The Independent:

Kari Blackburn
World Service executive
Published: 05 July 2007

Kari Blackburn, radio executive: born 30 March 1954; staff, BBC World Service 1977-2007, Assistant Head of Current Affairs (English) 1990-92, editor, BBC Marshall Plan of the Mind Trust 1992-96, Head of the Swahili and Great Lakes Service 1996-99, Head of the Africa Service 1999-2003, Regional Executive Editor of Africa and Middle East 2003-2006, Director of International Operations, World Service Trust 2006-07; married 1981 Tom Boto (two sons, one daughter); died Felixstowe, Suffolk 27 June 2007.

If you are lucky in life, you occasionally meet someone who sweeps you off your feet. Kari Blackburn, Director of International Relations for the BBC World Service Trust, swept up all who knew her with her boundless enthusiasm for Africa. Her care and commitment to her colleagues and her bottomless capacity to share her passions turned colleagues into friends, and friends into admirers.

Born in Somerset in 1954, Kari Blackburn was educated in London and Wales and read Social and Political Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class degree. She immediately afterwards left for Tanzania, where she was a primary school teacher and went out of her way to work with the disadvantaged. Throughout her life, she showed compassion for others and was enthused by the idea that she could help improve other people's lot.

On her return from Africa in 1977, she won a much sought-after news traineeship at the BBC, in the days when such trainees were recruited as potential high flyers. To some people's surprise, she eschewed television and joined the part of BBC World Service that specialised in Africa. She produced Focus on Africa and Network Africa, the programmes where tens of millions of Africans found out what was happening in their own backyard. She then became executive producer on the World Service's global output, but it was Africa that had become her abiding enthusiasm.

In 1996 she returned to be Head of the Swahili and Great Lakes Services, learning some Swahili, which she added to her fluent Norwegian, French and German. She quickly won a reputation amongst her staff as a caring and highly committed leader. A working mother herself, she became a role model for many young women who wanted to meet the demanding deadlines at the BBC while bringing up children. The impact of both services grew and they now have nearly 25 million listeners in East Africa. Blackburn helped build that momentum and continued to contribute to that success in her new roles of Head of Africa from 1999 and then, from 2003, Regional Executive Editor for all of Africa and the Middle East.

What inspired so many, though, was Kari Blackburn's sheer energy and wide-eyed, almost headlong, pursuit of experience and knowledge of Africa. In 2000, she toured the Horn of Africa, visiting the presidents of Djibouti and Somaliland before travelling round Mogadishu in "technicals", the heavily armed, open-backed pick ups that were the only safe means of travel in a country gripped by internal strife. It was in Hargeysa that hotel staff had to go after her in hot pursuit when she set off jogging. They were alarmed to see her heading at pace in the direction of fields that had not been cleared of landmines. It was typical Kari. She rarely allowed such inconveniences to get in the way of her effervescence and her desire to see first-hand the difficulties faced by her colleagues in the field.

For Kari Blackburn, mountains were there to be climbed. She recently conquered Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail and Everest base camp. And she could sail through the apparently impossible with a smile on her face. In Kenya, the BBC had long wanted to establish some FM relays but it seemed that the Kenyan government would never allow a foreign broadcaster to do this. None of this prevented Blackburn from pursuing the request with President Daniel arap Moi while at a formal dinner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the BBC's Swahili Service.

At the end of the dinner the President turned round and said loudly, "I grant the BBC its request", leaving his advisers looking on, wondering what on earth he meant. Next morning the presidential approval for a BBC FM relay appeared in the form of a letter addressed to Kari Blackburn.

Blackburn often talked with pride about the achievements of her children and her Ugandan-born husband Tom Boto, whom she had married in 1981. She saw her eventual future in Uganda with Tom, where he could use his considerable talents as a consultant gynaecologist and she could once again do practical community work. She considered her recent decision to take up a role with the World Service Trust as a step along that path. The trust is the charitable arm of the BBC which manages media-related development projects around the world.

Her desire to finish her working life in Africa was one of the few ambitions Kari Blackburn was not to realise.

Jerry Timmins

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Anna_St_G

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Re: Kari Blackburn
Reply #1 - Jul 6^th, 2007, 7:00am

Gateway > Ariel > The Paper 020 800 84227

The shock of losing Kari Blackburn
The death of the former leader in the Africa service at Bush House came as a shock to her colleagues who remember her with pride and warmth

Tributes have come to Ariel from stunned colleagues following the death of Kari Blackburn, director of international operations at the World Service Trust.

Her body was found floating in the sea near her home in Felixstowe, Suffolk. She was airlifted to the same hospital where her husband Tom Boto works as a gynaecologist but she could not be saved.

She was described as a caring and inspirational manager who was devoted to Tom and their children Kassalina, Jonah and Tony.

Kari joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1977, and worked for many years in the Africa service, recently as regional executive editor in the Africa and Middle East regions. She was due to take retirement this week, a move which friends say she had resisted and was not looking forward to.

Mark Thompson called her sudden death ‘shocking’, and World Service director Nigel Chapman described her as ‘an outstanding journalist, broadcaster, editor and manager’ whose popularity and kindness were ‘legendary’.

A book of condolences is open near reception in centre block, Bush House.

Kari was one of the most popular and respected leaders in the World Service. Her direct charm, frank humility, and affectionate attention to all around her embodied, to many, the values of the World Service and its internal culture. She was never one to boast a success, always one to share it. Her accomplishments included change-making, staff development and huge audience increases in Africa, with special emphasis on East Africa. Kari could be found at Heathrow overnight, ensuring that a female Somali journalist and two children could get through immigration after an 18-month battle by Kari for their visas. She would spread the net for advice and help for a Nigerian producer struck with breast cancer and a long way from home. The list of care is a long one and meant that many people across World Service, BBC bureaux in Africa, and in news and current affairs saw her as a personal and responsive friend.
Barry Langridge, former head of region, Africa and Middle East

‘You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit.’
Death of a Salesman

I first came across Kari in Malawi in the early 80s when she was on a duty trip for the African service – with her new baby in tow. I marvelled at how someone could combine a heavy schedule of recording interviews with caring for her daughter. But Kari’s family was the rock of her working life, and she was so proud of them.

Kari was always so positive, so friendly, and supportive – an inspirational manager who generously and unstintingly brought out the best in those around her. Her commitment, enthusiasm and dedication to the World Service, its original values and place in the world were infectious, and she didn’t strike anyone who knew her as someone who would give up the work she loved a day before she had to.
Ruth Evans, independent producer and former colleague

I am in this job because of Kari. She spotted the vacancy and knew I should go for it. She was that kind of boss. Kari knew the names of your children, your difficult commute, your relative’s illness, but more, she knew your potential. I am just one of many people that Kari held in mind, even when she was busy, restructuring whole departments, travelling widely or getting up at 3am to make sure she could give her own programme feedback on the 24 hour operation that is the World Service.
As she sat in my office in Nairobi last month, where she attended the BBC Africa radio awards, I couldn’t believe the turn of events. Here I was in a job she had helped to prepare me for and there she was in a deeply upsetting situation in her current post. She resolved to return and negotiate as best she could – but the BBC’s response was to seek her resignation signature and start organising a retirement party. The BBC needs managers like Kari. She was worth more than the difficulties of her last eight months. The personal sacrifice that women make to reach high positions should not go unrecognised. She is all our loss.
Alice Martin, head of unit, BBC monitoring, Kenya

I’ve known Kari since we were young producers together in the African service. Recently we had been working in different parts of the BBC, but not long ago she intervened decisively in my life. I had thought of setting myself up in Mauritius as a correspondent after retirement – very warm, very quiet. Most of my colleagues laughed, but Kari said, ‘You would be bored silly – what you ought to do is go to Addis Ababa.’
And so I did, and I have Kari to thank for my new life. I just can’t believe she is gone.
Elizabeth Blunt, correspondent, Addis Ababa

I first got to know Kari in the 80s when we worked together on the World Service’s weekly Development programme. She was a tremendous producer – passionate and knowledgeable about international development, and full of integrity about the way we responded to listeners’ concerns and ideas. We became good friends – and you couldn’t get to know Kari without realising how hugely important her family was to her. My heart goes out to Tom and the children.
Wendy Jones, exec, learning

I couldn’t believe my ears while hearing about the passing away of Kari Blackburn. It is a big loss for the BBC indeed. May she rest in peace.
Idy Baraou, reporter, Niger

There are those who run the show. And those, modest and clever, that remain backstage. It is largely thanks to them that the show is smooth and good. Kari Blackburn, our former Africa and Middle East editor, was one of them. She was particularly supportive to us in the Congo. We will miss her.
Arnaud Zajtman, correspondent, DR Congo

Kari Blackburn was indeed a friend of Africa. During my time at the BBC, especially at Bush House, she was always a bright and cheerful presence. Kari was a manager with a human face, who consulted and included her staff and colleagues. She always had a kind word for everyone. She will be much missed.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, former BBC West Africa correspondent

Beloved Kari, you were the genuine article. You respected Africa and her people, so full of humanity. You were not only interested in promoting our talents but also in us as human beings.
If you wonder why so many of us are so shocked and saddened by your untimely death, it is simply because you were an advocate for Africa even in a sometimes hostile environment. Some of us saw it at first hand. What a beautiful life cut short so tragically. Thanks for caring. Rest in peace.
Josephine Onike Hazeley, deputy editor, Focus on Africa

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Re: Kari Blackburn
Reply #2 - Jul 9^th, 2007, 4:26pm

This is taken from The Times, July 9 2007:

Kari Blackburn
Inspirational leader in the BBC’s World Service whose enthusiasm for Africa created a lasting legacy in Uganda

In a career on the staff of the BBC World Service that lasted for 30 years, Kari Blackburn became one of the service’s most popular and respected journalists and executives. Beyond the BBC, she demonstrated an enthusiasm for Africa and a determination to do her bit to alleviate suffering and socal deprivation there that was exemplfied by her and her husband’s role in the development of a school in Northern Uganda, and their work in resurrecting it after rebel despoliation.

To many who came into contact with her, Blackburn embodied the values of BBC World Service and the international culture of its centre, Bush House. Her accomplishments included her part in pushing through vital structural changes and staff development, and in garnering huge increases in audiences in Africa, with special emphasis on East Africa. She helped to enable the BBC World Service to bring its programmes to large numbers of listeners desperate for accurate and relevant radio news.

Her care for overseas journalists with problems knew scarcely any bounds. She might be found at Heathrow overnight, ensuring that a female Somali reporter and her two children could get through immigration after an 18-month battle waged by Blackburn for their visas. On another occasion she immediately made available a network of advice and help to a Nigerian producer struck with breast cancer and a long way from home. A vast number of people right across BBC World Service, BBC bureaux in Africa and in BBC News and Current Affairs thought of her as a personal friend.

Kari Blackburn was born in Somerset in 1954. Her father was the educationist Robert Blackburn, a force in the United World College movement and a moving force in the establishment of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. After gaining a first at Cambridge in social and political sciences, she taught in Tanzania before joining the BBC in 1977 as a news trainee and then became a producer in the English African Service.

A natural news editor and programme-maker, she switched to English current affairs where she moved up the ranks rapidly, helped to launch the flagship Newshour and became assistant head.

In 1992 she was appointed editor of the BBC Marshall Plan of the Mind Trust, the award-winning multimedia education project for countries of the former Soviet Union. She then returned to the African Service as head of the Swahili Service – and tackled Swahili to add to her Norwegian, German, French and some Russian. The African Service went on to become one of the largest BBC services in terms of audience – 21.3 million listening weekly. She was also involved intimately with the crucial “life-line” services to Rwanda and Burundi.

To her immense but quiet pride, Blackburn became head of the BBC’s Africa Service, and ran it in an era of huge success. Later she helped to steer the BBC Arabic Service at a time of transition and was then appointed executive editor of the Africa and Middle East region. Her last post was director of international operations for the World Service Trust, the centre of excellence in media techniques in development, aid and emergencies.

East Africa was her great love. She married Tom Boto, a Ugandan consultant in gynaecology, and they had a daughter and a son of their own and adopted a third child, a nephew of Boto’s, who was rescued from tragic circumstances and arrived in Ipswich aged 4, speaking only his local dialect.

By then the Boto-Blackburn clan had amassed a large circle of Ugandan friends in the UK, and many more throughout Uganda, where they took on the challenge of developing the local school in Boto’s home village.

After the Lord’s Resistance Army raid that plundered everything, the school is in the process of being replenished, and hundreds of children have come out of squalid refugee camps to reclaim their only hope of education. The family is determined that this work will continue.

Kari Blackburn, journalist and radio executive, was born on March 30, 1954. She was found drowned in the sea on June 27, 2007, aged 53

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akweamosu

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Re: Kari Blackburn
Reply #3 - Jul 16^th, 2007, 4:46am

I was and still am so shocked by Kari's death. I knew she was unhappy about the moves she was being asked to make and we had agreed to meet for breakfast that very week in London because I would be passing through. She was the kindest, most decent and committed colleague and I can only join with others to express my sadness and regret and wish the family the strength they need to get through this bitter time.

Akwe

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