Hate Speech: Traditional media to adhere to ethics

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Press Council (NPC), Mr Nnamdi Njemanze on Thursday advised media practitioners to adhere to ethical principles as part of efforts to counter Hate Speech in the country.

Njemanze gave the advice in Abuja at a one-day sensitisation workshop on Hate Communication in Nigeria: Identifying it’s Roots and Remedies.

The workshop was organised by NPC, with support from the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

He stressed the need for the traditional media and other media professionals to focus more on professionalism and effective gatekeeping to guide non-professional players.

He also enjoined journalists and editors to avoid the bandwagon mentality driven by the Social Media to break the news no matter how poorly processed.

Njemanze said that media professionals must strenuously balance between freedom of expression and respect for equality, justice and dignity.

“We must not also gloss over the rift and fault lines thrown up by this phenomenon but rather seek ways of intermediation.

“If we do so, the other adjunct of hate mongering, false news will also be addressed to the barest minimum through subjection of the news process to the best practice of verification, accuracy, balance and fairness.

“In a multi-ethnic and diverse society such as Nigeria with centrifugal tendencies, the phenomenon of hate speech or communication calls for the interrogation of fundamental principles that underpin our nation to address the root of these insidious inclinations in some of us.”

The executive secretary said the workshop was conceived to x-ray the causes and remedies to hate communication in the country.

He also said that the workshop would attempt to look at the various facets along which hate communication on ethnicity, language group, gender, religion and sexual preference could be constructed.

He commended the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for his leadership and direction in trying to roll back the deleterious effects of hate communication on the polity.

The Chairman of the occasion, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), decried the growing level of hate speech in the country.

Ononuga expressed worry that hate communication was capable of disrupting the corporate existence of the country.

He said that the workshop was apt, adding that the theme was germane to the national mood, considering the prevalence of hate speech.

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“It is something to worry about and it is worrisome to me as a Nigerian because the way hate speech is being ventilated every time gives me fear wether there will be a nation in this country in next few months or years,” he said.

Ononuga said that sections 29 and 38 of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right of every Nigerian to freedom of speech, expression, freedom of thought and freedom to hold opinion.

Onanuga, said all the Human Rights Charter signed by Nigeria like the UN Declaration on Human Rights and African Charter on Human Rights guarantee the freedom of expression.

He, however, said that Section 45 of the Constitution expressly states that all these ”freedom are not absolute”.

“It is this lacuna of the law of our freedom not being absolute that decide what you call hate speech and libel.”

Onanuga, therefore, urged the Federal Government to invoke the relevant laws like Cyber Crime Act to control the epidemic of hate speech before it destroys the society.

Mr Olusegun Odebunmi, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation, stressed the need for the executive and legislature to join hands to regulate the Social Media.

Odebunmi, represented by Mr Timothy Golu, a member of the committee, urged the Press Council and other relevant agencies to adopt holistic approach to counter the spread of hate speech in the media.

The President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), AbdulWaheed Odusile, called for National Dialogue on hate speech to bring all stakeholders together with a view to reminding them about their roles in countering hate speech.

The event was attended by media professionals, veteran journalists and scholars of Mass Communication from the 36 states and the FCT.