The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has advised media houses in the country against offering their platforms for use to communicate hate speech.
Mohammed warned that if not check, hate speech could be the precursor of violence and genocide.
He made the call while declaring open a Workshop on Hate Speech titled “Hate Communication in Nigeria: Identifying its Roots and Remedies”
The workshop organized by the Nigeria Press Council in collaboration with Word and Image Ltd. was chaired by the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr Bayo Onanuga.
The minister noted that the fastest way to nip the dangers of hate speech in the bud was for journalists to out rightly turn its back to the trend.
He said: “The fact that the media takes this issue seriously is very encouraging, because, in most cases, the media – wittingly or unwittingly – provides the platform for the dissemination of hate speech. But I can say here, unequivocally, that the Nigerian media understands the dangers of hate speech.
“I have always said that hate speech is not free speech. For example, while the Nigerian constitution guarantees freedom of speech, it does not guarantee freedom of hate speech. That’s because hate speech could be the precursor of violence, of genocide!”
Citing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left at least 800,000 people dead, the Minister said “hate speech, or what later became known as ‘Hate Media’, was a major catalyst of that genocide.”
This fact, he noted was confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda when it sentenced two Rwandan journalists to life in prison and a third to 35 years in jail for their roles in fuelling the genocide.
He therefore stressed, “The lesson here is that journalists must never offer their platforms for use to communicate hate speech. They must say NO to hate speech. That’s one of the fastest ways to nip the dangers of hate speech in the bud.
“This is why this workshop is very important. I have no doubt that with the quality of the resource persons who have been assembled for this workshop; it will achieve its purpose and also go a long way in stemming the tide of hate speech in our country. A multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious society like ours cannot afford to allow hate speech to thrive. A fledgling democracy like ours is too fragile to luxuriate in hate speech. We must all say NO to hate speech.”
