A five-day training on the ‘Role of Media in Peace Building and Conflict Prevention’, being rolled out for 18 newspapers, radio and television journalists in the West African state of The Gambia, kicked off on Monday at NaNA Conference Hall in Kanifing, along Bertil Harding Highway.
Organized by The Point Newspaper, in partnership with Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung in Dakar, through the Victim Centre, the training aims to build the capacity of journalists on election reporting.
Addressing the participants, a doyen of Gambian journalism Mr. Pap Saine, who is the co-proprietor of The Point Newspaper, noted among other things, that the training aims to highlight the importance of elections and equip journalists to report on peaceful elections.
The new President of Gambia Press Union (GPU), Mr. Muhammed S. Bah, charged that as the country goes into the first-post dictatorship presidential election in December, and looking at the many contesting candidates, it’s important to build the capacity of journalists on election reporting and provide them with the relevant tools that would guide them in doing their work.
He emphasized that journalists should work according to the dictates of the Code of ethics (dubbed ‘Cherno Jallow Code of Ethics’) in order to gain public respect, trust and ensure peace and stability.
“The crucial role of the media in ensuring the electoral process is free, fair, credible, and peaceful cannot be overemphasized. This is not just limited to the media’s observer/watchdog role in elections and the electoral process,” the GPU chief reminded his colleagues in the media. He added that the role of journalists in elections is broad and includes not only informing and educating the public, but also providing the platform for various electoral stakeholders and the public to fully participate in the electoral process.
Bah recalled that the GPU research on ‘hate speech’, conducted in September this year, has shown that there is an increase in hate speech in the media fraternity; that it reveals how religion, political affiliation, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (and other identification factors) have become grounds for hatred and incitement of violence or discrimination against various individuals and groups in the Gambian society, describing it as ‘a national concern’.
In contrast to this finding, according to him, the majority of the respondents believe that hate speech is more common on the radio than newspapers and web-based media platforms.
“Hate speech is found to be less common in the television broadcast. This trend is observed from 2017 after the change of government.”
The GPU president while enjoining journalists not to allow themselves to be used by any politician, religious or influential leader in propelling hate speech, pointed out that the “growing wave of media-instigated violence, and the need to channel the immense influence exercised by the media to promote societal peace and harmony, has given rise to the concept of peace journalism”. To Bah, peace journalism is manifested when journalists deliberately make choices regarding the stories they report and the prominence they accord such stories, in ways that create opportunities for members of society to take the route of non-violence when responding to conflict – such as electoral tensions.
“I wish to notify you that Fact-checking should be part of everyday journalism, and it is even more important that this culture of verification is entrenched. As we have seen the emerging of social media, we as journalists need to know that misinformation and disinformation come in many forms; it’s important for journalists to identify and debunk them,” Bah told the journalists.
He stressed the need for peaceful journalism, dissecting peace journalism as the deliberate selection and reportage of stories in ways that create opportunities for society at large, to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict.
Peace journalism, he outlined, uses the insights of conflict analysis and transformation to uphold balance, fairness and accuracy in reporting; provides a new route map tracing the connections between journalists, their sources, the stories they cover and the consequences of their journalism; and builds an awareness of non-violence and creativity into the practical job of everyday editing and reporting.
Mrs. Jainaba Nyang-Nije, a veteran journalist and former broadcaster with the state media, urged journalists to be actively engaged in research and fact-checking to ensure the accuracy of their reports.
She emphasized their reports should not be influenced by any influential individual, adding they shouldn’t allow politicians to indoctrinate them with their ideas.
