Minister directs govt. information managers to boycott hate speeches medium

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has directed government information managers to “boycott any medium that engages in hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation and fake news’’.

The Minister gave the directive on Friday in Jos at the Extraordinary Meeting of the National Council on Information with the theme; “Hate Speeches, Fake News and National Unity’’.

Mohammed, while suggesting way out of the hate speeches phenomenon, said that public information managers were critical to addressing the scourge.

“We all must say NO to hate speeches, either on our radio and television stations, newspapers, the Social Media, on our phones or in the public space.

“We must be resolute in tackling the canker-worm of hate speeches, disinformation and fake news.

“We as government information managers must embark on a relentless campaign against these evil tendencies at our various levels, whether federal or state.

“We must boycott any medium that engages in hate speeches, incitement to violence, disinformation and fake news,’’ he said.

The minister appealed to the media, the traditional media in particular, to show responsibility by repudiating the purveyors of hate speeches, disinformation and fake news.

He noted that unlike the Social Media, the traditional media is subject to the rigours of accuracy, fact-checking and fairness, among others.

He, however, observed “sadly, even a section of the traditional media now apes the hate campaigners by lifting their unverified or distorted news and dumping such on their readers”.

According to him, a section of the traditional media also thrived on anti-government tendency.

“If you pick up copies of some newspapers, you will think the government of the day is doing nothing at all to alleviate the sufferings of the people, occasioned by the economic downturn.

“They ignore any positive actions of government, including the massive investment in infrastructure like roads and railways

“They instead focus on anything that will make the government look bad.

“Instead of reporting the news freely and fairly, they have constituted themselves to an opposition bloc.

“Let me note that it is only because we have a peaceful country that we have journalists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc all practising their trade.

“If we allow our country to be plunged into crisis just because of the antics of an irresponsible few, neither the journalists nor any other professionals will be able to practice their profession,’’ he said.

The minister also admonished owners of radio stations across the country to stop the spewing of hate speeches and careless incitement to violence on their stations.

Mohammed gave four recent instances he had been a victim of fake news phenomenon in the course of discharging his official assignment.

He said the purveyors had the common goal of destabilising the system, inciting people to violence and weakening the people’s confidence in their government.

It was reported that the event was declared open by Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau who was represented by his Deputy, Prof. Sonni Tyoden.

The Head of all parastatal agencies in the Information segment of the ministry, States Commissioners for Information and permanent Secretaries attended the meeting.