CHAMECC steps up efforts in fight against Hate Speech.

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

                                                                         

The efforts of Charmers Media and Communication Consults Cameroon known by the acronym CHAMECC has stepped up efforts in combating Hate Speech in Cameroon by promoting decent language through Human Rights Education in the Media in the South West and North West Regions. This was evident in the two day Regional Workshop for Bloggers, Journalists and Social Media Managers from the South West and North West Regions. This activity which was programmed for the 25^th and 26^th of October succeeded to showcase CHAMECC’s determination to combat Hate Speech through the series of finely packaged activities that characterized the workshop.

The workshop was spiced by presentations that focused on the impact of Hate Speech on Social Media, question and answer sessions; experience sharing and group work on how bloggers and journalists can combat Hate Speech. This was followed by a presentation of reports of groups work in plenary. This resulted in recommendations on combating Hate Speech.

In a presentation which among other things focused on the cultural surrounding of Hate Speech, Gwain Colbert, one of the facilitators said there was a tendency for this to evolve making speech to mean different things in different contexts eliciting completely different emotions at different times. The sensitivity of the environment he said rendered new meaning to speech. 

Zooming in on the Cameroonian context, he said in the past hate speech was usually directed towards governing authorities and the system but with the evolution of the political situation the nature of such speech changed. Commenting on the qualities of Hate Speech he said it always poses danger and could lead to the escalation of violence since it usually preaches against a major component of society.

Combating Hate Speech has however encountered problems he said explaining that people who are against the fight to eradicate Hate Speech have referred to such efforts as the criminalisation of free speech or communication.

 Among the many recommendations that were arrived at to combat Hate Speech, some of them included knowing your audience and mastering the sociopolitical and cultural environment, developing factual counter narratives, carrying out frequent workshops on Hate Speech among others.   

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