Kari Blackburn

Infobox Person
name = Kari Blackburn

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image_size = 150px
caption =
birth_name = Kari Blackburn
birth_date = March 30, 1954
birth_place = Somerset, England
death_date = death date and age|2007|6|27|1954|3|30
death_place = Felixstowe, Suffolk, England
death_cause = Suicide by drowning
resting_place =
resting_place_coordinates =
residence =
nationality =
other_names = Kari Boto
known_for =
education =
alma_mater =
employer = BBC
occupation =
home_town = Ipswich
spouse = Tom Boto

Kari Boto "née" Blackburn (30 March 1954 – 27 June 2007) was a BBC reporter and senior executive who specialised in Africa.

Biography

Early life

Blackburn was born in Somerset on 30 March 1954cite news
first = Jerry
last = Timmins
title = Kari Blackburn: World Service executive
url = http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kari-blackburn-455970.html
work = The Independent
date = 2007-07-05
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] to Irish educationist Robert Blackburncite news
first = David
last = Sapsted
title = BBC chief 'kills herself' by walking into the sea
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1555960/BBC-chief-%27kills-herself%27-by-walking-into-the-sea.html
work = The Daily Telegraph
date = 2007-06-29
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] and Esther Archer. [cite news
title = Robert Blackburn; Obituary
work = The Times
date = 1990-08-14 ] She took her A-levels at Atlantic College [cite web
url = http://www.uwc.org/content/uwc/media//UnitedWorld/UWSept07.pdf
title = Obituaries
accessdate = 2008-08-03
date = September 2007
format = PDF
work = United World
publisher = United World Colleges
pages = 5 ] and later studied in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge and graduated with First Class Honours. Afterwards, she travelled to Africa to teach in a primary school in Tanzania, returning to Europe in 1977.

Marriage and children

Blackburn met Tom Boto, her future husband, in London. Boto had fled Uganda to escape the regime of Idi Amin, who came to power through a coup d'état in 1971 ("see 1971 Ugandan coup d'état"). Blackburn and Boto were married in 1981, and had two children: a daughter and a son. They also adopted a nephew of Boto's as their third child.cite news
title = Kari Blackburn
url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2045079.ece
work = The Times
date = 2007-07-09
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ]

BBC career

Blackburn joined the BBC in 1977 as a news trainee,cite news
title = BBC editor's death 'was suicide'
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7405651.stm
work = BBC News
date = 2008-05-16
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] and continued to work for the broadcasting corporation until her death. In 1992, she became editor of the BBC Marshall Plan of the Mind Trust, a "multimedia education project" for the former Soviet republics. From 1996 to 1999, she headed the BBC Swahili and Great Lakes Service. She became head of BBC World Service Africa in 1999, and remained in this post until 2003, when she became regional executive director of BBC World Service for Africa and the Middle East. In October 2006, she became director of international operations at the BBC World Service Trust,cite news
first = Andrew
last = Levy
title = BBC director found drowned was 'stressed, under-supported and isolated' at work, inquest hears
url = http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-566853/BBC-director-drowned-stressed-supported-isolated-work-inquest-hears.html
work = The Mail on Sunday
date = 2008-05-16
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] an "independently-funded development charity of the BBC". [cite web
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/aboutus/bbc/
title = Our relationship with the BBC
accessdate = 2008-05-26
work = BBC World Service Trust
publisher = BBC ]

Death

Blackburn died on 27 June 2007, three days before the expiration of her BBC contract, drowning at sea at the North Sea seaport of Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, close to her home in Ipswich. [cite news
author = Tozer, James, and Duncan Robertson
title = BBC boss dies after walking into the sea
url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-465004/BBC-boss-dies-walking-sea.html
work = Daily Mail
date = 2007-06-29
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] Her body was recovered and transported by a RAF helicopter to Ipswich Hospital, but she could not be resuscitated.cite news
title = Inquest opens into BBC woman's sea death
url = http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=News&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED16%20May%202008%2011%3A40%3A54%3A110
work = Evening Star
date = 2008-05-16
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] Witnesses reported seeing her "sitting with her head in her hands near the beach" shortly before her death. Blackburn was reported missing after her clothes and keys were found on the beach. Notes addressed to her husband and children were also found in Blackburn's car. [cite news
title = BBC executive took own life - inquest
url = http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED16%20May%202008%2014%3A37%3A42%3A780
work = East Anglian Daily Times
date = 2008-05-16
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] She was survived by her husband, a daughter, and two sons.

John Ssebaana Kizito, president of Uganda's Democratic Party and former mayor of Kampala, paid tribute to Blackburn in early July, writing: "The death of Kari Blackburn comes as a great shock to me. It is as unexpected as it is devastating." [cite news
title = African leader pays tribute to Kari
url = http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=News&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED03%20Jul%202007%2010%3A24%3A19%3A287
work = Evening Star
date = 2007-07-04
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ]

An inquest, held on 16 May 2008, ruled her death to have been a suicide. According to Boto, a Ugandan consultant gynaecologist at Ipswich Hospital, [cite news
first = Mark
last = Bulstrode
title = 'Isolated' BBC chief drowned herself
url = http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/isolated-bbc-chief-drowned-herself-829991.html
work = The Independent on Sunday
date = 2008-05-17
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] Blackburn suffered from "mental and physical illness" after assuming her position at BBC World Service Trust and felt "isolated and under-supported". Boto blamed the BBC for his wife's death, [cite news
first = Stephen
last = Adams
title = BBC bullying ‘killed my wife’
url = http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx
work = The Daily Telegraph
date = 2008-03-24
accessdate = 2008-05-26 ] claiming that she "was crying for help but nobody at the BBC listened to her problems".

The BBC released a statement in response to the coroner's judgment, describing Blackburn as "a very popular leader, with great humanity and compassion" who "was devoted to the BBC".

ee also

* List of drowning victims

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/worldservice/kariblackburn.shtml Kari Blackburn] – BBC Press Office

Persondata
NAME = Blackburn, Kari
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Boto, Kari (married name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION = BBC executive
DATE OF BIRTH = March 30, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH = Somerset, England
DATE OF DEATH = June 27, 2007
PLACE OF DEATH = Felixstowe, Suffolk, England