Hate media, and specifically electronic media that incite people to kill others, is making its return, according to Jan Hoek, Director-General of Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW). He said the military in certain failed or fragile states were gaining a better understanding of how hate media could be used for localised psychological warfare, specifically to incite ethnic hatred.
Mr Hoek was speaking at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, about a proposal to stop the return of hate media that had been formulated by RNW in conjunction with Professor Cees Hamelink of the University of Amsterdam. He said there had been lots of dialogue about the role of media in pre and post conflict situations, but there seemed to be little follow-up in terms of action.
“The exception has been the recent policy briefing study on the Kenya 2007 elections in April 2008 by the BBC World Service Trust. But they also highlight that a lot more needs to be done, especially in improving the haphazard system of monitoring hate media,” he explained.
Mr Hoek proposed that an independent media monitoring and research centre be set up. “This centre would have a strict mandate – to act as an early warning system for instances of incitement to genocide,” he said.
“This is not an attempt to create yet another bureaucracy. Instead, the centre would aim to have more of a clearinghouse function, maintaining a ‘helicopter view’ of the situation and being transparent in its operations at all times. “There is no reason that the centre could not be housed as part of an existing institute or foundation”, he added.
Mr Hoek told delegates that a paper explaining the proposal in more detail would be posted to the Global Media Forum website so that media organisations could evaluate the proposal further.
(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)
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