The Principal Civic Education Officer of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the central region, Mr. Patrick Owusu Afful, has advocated for addressing hate speech through legal, media and political actions.
He says often politicians and some individuals leverage hate speech to advance their agenda in the build-up to the General Elections but emphasized that such inflammatory language could incite hatred and violence and must be avoided at all costs.
To curb the situation, Mr. Patrick Owusu Afful urged the government to provide clear guidelines for the media to avoid promoting hate speech.
Mr. Patrick Owusu Afful spoke in an interview in a conversation “Let our politics be devoid of hate speech”
He explained that as media houses will wish to be the first to report on issues without paying attention to the accuracy of the news reports, clear guidelines could govern the reports they churn out to the public.
“It means that every time we turn on the radio, we’ll have to check them. The government will have to provide guidelines to help the media so that when they go off they know that we are moving from the normal way.”
He further urged “Ghanaians to stand against politicians who use derogatory language and show them the consequences of their actions by not voting for them.”
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Source: Aba Aikins/ATLFMNEWS
