Cameroon media urged to campaign against hate speech

By Patience Toge

Some 30 media professionals have been implored to use their media organs especially now that Cameroon is battling with the Anglophone Crisis, to launch campaigns against increasing hate speeches.

The call was made by rights promoters during a two-day [10-11th January 2019] seminar on “Discriminatory speech, propaganda and incitement to hatred”, which took place in Douala ,organized by the United Nations Center for Human rights and Democracy in Central Africa ( UNCHRD-CA), for media professionals, social media actors and bloggers.

The participants who converged on Douala, brainstormed on the way forward to end hate speech in the media landscape in Cameroon 

Drawn from four Regions of the country- North West, South West, West and Littoral, participants were drilled on the negative impact of hate speech in communities, especially with the ongoing crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, which has engaged government forces and armed separatists in deadly confrontations, resulting in thousands of deaths and wanton destruction of property. 

The seminar was aimed at reminding journalists of their professional responsibilities as news bearers to the communities, by critically examining published stories on the Anglophone crisis.

 “It is evident that the media has played a role in escalating the crisis” said Kiven Fonyuy, Communication and Advocacy Associate for UNCHRD-CA.

 “Crisis reporting techniques have become more than ever before necessary for journalists and social media actors in the North West and South West but also in the West and Littoral Regions where political debates in various media channels have a firm influence on the people’s opinions about the crisis, the actors and the victims,”  Kiven Fonyuy added.

Participants were therefore encouraged to remain as professional as ever in their reporting of the crisis so as to avoid escalating the crisis with the use of hate speech.

The legal framework with regards to international law was explained to seminar participants by the Program Assistant for Human Right and Democracy for central Africa (UNCHRD-CA) ,Christian Fritz Ntopa, to enable them better understand the law on hate speech and incitement to hatred and its implications.At the end of the seminar, participants came out with a media strategy to delete discriminatory messages in the media, in order to help de-escalate tension in the context of the Anglophone crisis.