Peace Building:#Defyhatenow Reminds Community Media Of Its Role

 By Raymond Dingana

In an effort to bring the media especially community media to assume its central role in Peace Building and the fight against Hate Speech in Cameroon, #defyhatenow organized a two day workshop for Community Media Broadcasters on Peace Building and the fight against hate speech, Friday and Saturday,November 27 and 28 in Bamenda.

Community Media Practitioners And Their Resource Persons During The Capacity Building Come Together

As stated by the trainer on Pidgin English Broadcasting and community Radio in Peace Building, Mr. Kolle George K. taking in to consideration the present socio political crisis rocking Cameroon particularly the North West and the South West Regions, there is need to empower journalists on their responsibility to the crisis.

“Community journalists are on the ground, they know the terrain,  can say who is doing what and  can better source for resource persons on programs that are trusted by the communities. They have a central role to set the agenda for peace in the NW/SW regions, they have the responsibility to ensure that, society returns to where it was or even better by crafting programs that have to do with peace building, take angles to stories that promote peace building, bring resource persons on their programs that are trusted by the community who can trace the origin of the problem and provide outlets out of the present imbroglio the country is passing through to take part on talk show programs.'' Kolle George indicated.

Trainer On Pidgin English Broadcasting and community Radio in Peace Building, Mr. Kolle George K.

He furthered that, after the training, the journalists are expected to craft programs that have to do with peace building, take angles to stories that promote peace building, bring resource persons on their programs that are trusted by the community who can trace the origin of the problem and provide outlets out of the present imbroglio the country is passing through to take part on talk show programs.

On Hate Speech, the media men and women were fortified with the necessary arsenal to be able to educate the populace on the dangers of hate speech to be able to pass the information to the local population all in a bid to curtail hate in the society. According to the research officer at #defyhatenow, Derick Fai, love, education among others will do the magic:

“A journalist is an elite and should not be the one propagating hate speech but to be a peace builder.  There are some peace building virtues and values we know exist in the society that from the very moment you practice them, it becomes very difficult to indulge in hate speech. If you are someone who tolerates and respects other peoples culture, you will not hate them because of their way of life, if you are someone who accepts people for who and what they are, if you are somebody that loves, you will not see yourself harming people verbally or otherwise. Letting go in order to avoid further conflicts when one is a victim of hate speech, think before clicking on a message for those using social media in order that people are not hurt will go a long way to mitigate hate speech,'' Derick said.

Research Officer at #defyhatenow, Derick Fai

On her part, Ofonde Agbor working for Radio Evangelum in Mamfe said, she will use the languages the people best appreciate like the Pidgin and Ejagham languages to make them understand the dangers of using hate speech on others and how they can solve the problem of hate with the use of tools like Love, Acceptance , Tolerance and many others.

To Ndong Carine, a Journalist in Bamenda, one new thing she learnt from the workshop was that, when one writes on t-shirts, it could be classified under print media. She added that, if one wants to be a peace builder, he or she needs to be tolerant, loving, and be able to let go when hurt.

The ball is now in the court of the journalist to make good use of the information and put all what they gathered in to practice and by so doing, they would have contributed their own quarter to peace building.