Agbor Balla says social media should be used to preach love, positivism
By Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi and Sheron Titanji*
Jointly organized by CHRDA (Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa) and CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation), the two day symposium and workshop which ran from November 16 through 17 2018 in Buea was aimed at educating the population to combat hate speech in the country.
In his word of welcome, the founder and president of CHRDA Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Bala called on the population of Cameroon to use social media to preach love, positive messages, expose the problems faced and the issues government has to address. He added that it is a necessity for each and every one to use the social media to fight against hate speech which is causing division in our society.
“It is bringing a lot of hatred and we owe it a duty to try and fight it. We should not only wait for there to be hate speech for us to counter,” he said
The objective of the workshop he said was to train young people on hate speech, what the notion is, how they can combat it and for them to understand that there is a thin line between hate speech and freedom of the expression. “We are going through a very difficult phase in this country wherein hate speech is the other of the day. We have communities that have lived together but because of hate speech and excitement of violence against each other, people have started looking others for the different perspective. Xenophobia is running riot in the country”.
In his presentation Prof. Enoh Tanjong, one time Head of Department for Journalism and Mass Communication, UB said human virtues and vices are randomly distributed across population and sub population. There is no scientific evidence to apportion human virtues or vices to a particular nation, region, ethnic group, tribe or village.
Some of the sources of hate speech made known during the workshop include: the rise of ethnicism, the rise of extremism, fear of political and social change, stereotypes and lack of psychological attention.
“Participants should put brakes on hate speech. This involves creating facts checking organizations to look at issues which are either correct or incorrect, putting in place peace journalism which involves building trust and bridges (do not report a speech by government officials which involves hate to others) and build up trust”.
The Director of the Pan African Institute of West Africa, PAID-WA on his part said there is no country that does not have differences. “We are stronger in diversity as people coming together. Our language should be taken as strength as Cameroonians are excelling everywhere” he noted.
At the end of the event, recommendations were put forward which was intended to involve the stakeholders and indulge then in the process of preserving civic space and combating hate and hate speech in Cameroon. The youths were also called upon to share what they have learnt to their communities, schools, neighborhoods and other areas.
The project was designed to absorb the youth population in Cameroon from different areas and religious background on preventing the use of hate speech.
The center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA)was founded in 2005 having headquarters in Buea, USA, Nairobi with the aim for the protection and promotion of democracy in all its facets. They have thematic arrears like gender unit, human rights defenders, digital rights, protection of prisoners amongst others.
“The importance of this workshop is to bring youth leaders all over the country, train them so that they can go back and train their organizations to jointly combat hate speech in Cameroon. Hate speech has and is still tearing our country apart, so we must fight it. The workshop was a huge success especially as the turnout was enormous,” Ekole Bazil, an organizer of the workshop told the press at the close of the 2 day event.