The
three-day training of journalists on how to cover and report elections,
underway at the Baobab Hotel, is a step in the right direction.
It
is so because through such training activities, journalists of this country
will have their skills honed and cultured on how to cover and report
highly-sensitive issues and matters like national elections.
Election
coverage, especially, needs tactfulness and brave reporting as electioneering
is always bedeviled with harsh remarks and hate speech, from mainly leaders and
supporters of political parties.
So
covering and reporting on elections need reporters with an objective mindset,
and thorough knowledge of how to sieve what is essential and fundamental to
public consumption from what is orientated towards causing trouble.
Therefore,
journalists reporting on elections must be well cultured, and disciplined in
disseminating remarks made by politicians and supporters of leaders and
political parties.
The
director and co-publisher of this paper is right in calling on journalists to
guard against disseminating hate speech, in their reports of especially
elections.
As
he stated, “As journalists, we should avoid reporting hate speech and any
remarks that will create problem for the society, since that will tarnish the
image of the Gambia media and practitioners.”
It
is very true that hate speech and false allegations are recipes for trouble in
society, especially dangerous during national elections.
Examples
of such happenings are all over Africa and other parts of the world. Rwanda is
a case in point, where more than 800,000 deaths were registered in 100 days
(between April and June 1994) during the political crisis that ensued in that
country after the death of former President Habyarimana, who was hot down from
a plane on 6 April 1994.
So
let’s be careful and pay heed to avoiding hate speech. Let us always be professional and stand ready
to get the facts about an issue so that the report will be credible and
sacrosanct.
Let
us also be factual and accurate in our reporting, and let our reports be
balanced and devoid of sentiments.
“Unbalanced
reports always attract criticism and put the press and journalists into
disrepute.”
Pap
Saine
