A platform of association of media professionals in the Central African sub region has been set up to help build sustainable peace and development.
The platform was set up on October 29 in Douala at the end of a four-day regional forum to raise awareness on the prevention of conflicts linked to hate speech strengthen the capacities of media organizations and communication regulatory bodies to fight against this phenomenon in Central Africa.
The forum jointly organized by the United Nations Office for Central Africa, UNOCA, the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS and other UN missions in the sub region, brought together members from media associations who brainstormed on better ways to tackle hate speech in the sub region.
Addressing the participants, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Africa, François Loucemy Fall took participants through the history of the sub region while highlighting the Rwandan genocide.
To prevent conflicts linked to hate speech, he pointed out three responsibilities of media professionals; preventing hate speech by doing their work professionally, methodically engage in the fight against hate speech by not being a vehicle or channel through which such messages are spread and play a pedagogic role in educating the public.
For four days, media professionals shared experiences on hate speech in their own countries and sought to tackle the problem from a common front.
It is this common solution that pushed them to create the platform which they say will better tackle the issue from a global perspective.
The platform will mainly serve as a window for discussion but also sharing experiences and best practices as well as content on issues related to sustainable peace and development in the Central African Sub Region.
In this light, the platform set up by the media professionals will work to vigourously fight against the propagation of hate speech both on the media and on social media.
