Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director for Advocacy and Policy Engagement, Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD), has tasked the media, to prevent politically inflammatory remarks, that could provoke national anarchy as we go to polls come December 7.
Dr. Asante, speaking at the launch of the National Media Commission’s (NMC) and CDD-Ghana’s collaborative activity on the theme: “Abusive Language/Hate Speech Monitoring”, said, the media can help curb political violence by refusing to invite people who use media platforms to incite and provoke conflict.
He further intimated that, while many key stakeholders like the Electoral Commission (EC), Election Security Task Force, National Peace Council, among others, were putting their final preparations in place ahead of the elections, the media constituted a critical stakeholder group whose contribution towards ensuring a peaceful election was indispensable.
Dr. Asante noted, that for some time now, the Media Foundation for West Africa had been reporting a trend of rampant use of abusive language on Ghanaian media platforms.
He said, according to a recent pre-election survey by CDD-Ghana, insulting and offensive comments, unsubstantiated allegations, provocative remarks, and some others were the observations of the average Ghanaian.
“It is for this reason that we at CDD-Ghana are delighted to be working with the NMC to embark on this monitoring.”
He added that, as part of his outfit’s effort, CDD-Ghana was also collaborating with the Media Foundation to increase the number of sampled media stations for monitoring of abusive and indecent language across Ghana.
Dr. Asante expressed the hope that the collaboration would immensely reduce politically inflammatory statements and conversations on the country’s airwaves, and ultimately help ensure political peace and stability.
Mr. Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, National Media Commission Chairman, also speaking reminded journalists of the fact that, while their role in the national discourse was very crucial, a journalist was supposed to carry out his duties, with absolute regard and respect for the laws of the state.
He said, all over the world, self-censorship was most effective in ensuring professional and decent media work.
Mr. Ayeboafo said to earn the respect and trust of the respective publics, journalists had to strive towards being responsible, and objective.
The NMC Chairman urged media houses to come up with strong guidelines that would ensure good conduct on the part of their reporters adding that, the initiative seeks to enable the detection and halting of media discussion or other content, likely to spark political unrest in the country.
Prior to the 2020 Presidential elections, many organizations, religious institutions, political parties and head of various bodies have advocated for peace and the prevention of any activities that will incite violence and lawlessness before, during and after the elections especially with the media and the youth of Ghana.
Notable amongst these groups are the National Peace Council, Ghana Christian Council, various political parties constituting the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC) amongst others.
According to these peace advocates, their various calls and messages, is to ensure that, the nation maintains and keep the peace it has been enjoying for decades now and also not to downplay the democracy we practice as a country but rather ensure a smooth and fair elections.
