Ashaiman NCCE sensitises students on hate speech

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has organised a sensitisation workshop for students of the Ashaiman Technical School (ASHTEC) on misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech in the aftermath of the Election 2024.

The workshop, which was on the theme “Well Informed Citizens for Elections 2024: A Civic Education Initiative on Combating Mis/Disinformation and Hate Speech,” is an initiative by the NCCE and the French Embassy to ensure a conflict-free election and its aftermath.

Mr. Mawuli Agbenu, the Greater Accra Regional Director for the NCCE, stated that the programme was to ensure that citizens were well informed to prevent them from falling into the trap of misinformation, disinformation, mal-information, and hate speech.

He said most wars and conflicts that broke out in some countries were because of mis or disinformation and hate speeches, citing Rwanda as an example where a radio station was used as a medium to spread hate comments about an ethnic group leading to a genocide and subsequent war.

He explained misinformation as the spreading of false information without malice or harm, while disinformation was to spread of false messages to cause harm.

Mr. Agbenu said hate speech was the spreading of information about a group of people based on their personality or characteristics to gain disaffection for them.

He noted that the NCCE was engaging in school and community sensitisation to ensure that the youth, especially students, became aware of the concept of mis and disinformation, hate speech, and mal information, so they would not mislead or deform people.

“We are educating them to ensure they spread useful information, bring developmental growth, and bring unity in the various communities,” he added.

He urged the students to extend the knowledge acquired from the workshop to their colleagues in different schools, their parents, and the community about the ills of mis and disinformation, as such false information creates chaos, wars, conflicts, and institutional mistrust.

He added that engaging in these would create mistrust among citizens and state institutions; therefore, they must desist from sharing information that would create disunity.

He again urged them to beware of the kind of information they take in, especially from social media, which has become a medium for both good and evil.

Mr. Daniel Boateng, the Entrepreneurship Facilitator at ASHTEC, commended the NCCE for its education and expressed the hope that the youth would imbibe the lessons from other countries.

He added that some people misinform, disinform, and spread hate comments for fun, forgetting the damage and harm it would cause to the people involved.

He entreated the students to verify any information before sharing it with others, while encouraging them to take their studies seriously instead of spreading false information on social media.

Source: GNA