Disinformation Posing National Threat, Needs Legal Enforcement: Professionals

Addis Ababa May 29/2019 Disinformation and hate speech, which increasingly spread on social media, posing a national threat and need legal enforcement to combat its stern impacts, professionals said.

After Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed assumed office of the premiership in April 2018, Ethiopia has moved to free hundreds of dissident websites, welcome back exiled journalists and media outlets, on the top of widening the stifle media landscape for journalists.

However, a rising tide of disinformation and hate speech is straddling the country ensuing raging conflicts in several parts of Ethiopia.

So, to ease the spread of disinformation and hate speech, regulations have been proposed by the government and expected to be enacted by the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR).

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Associated Press (AP) Correspondent, Elias Meseret appreciated the move saying “in the past one year, generally there has been tremendous amount of opening up of the media landscape and this is something undeniable.”

Through undertaking fact checking with pertinent officials, Elias has been at the forefront of revealing fake news that are spread on the social media.

He pointed out that the current media landscape is different than before, as in the later “some government officials were threatening while some wanted us to be part of their propaganda.”

“I think what the government should do right now is to put the freedom of press into a legal framework otherwise it will be the will of the Prime Minister or politicians,”he explained.

Furthermore, Elias indicated that the upcoming media law and freedom of expression proclamation should ensure that journalists able to get information in fair and balanced manner.

“Due to lack of awareness of freedom of expression many people infringe on others in the social media and claim it is a freedom of speech,” he said, and added “the new upcoming hate speech law will be crucial to tackle.”

People in Ethiopia have the tendency to believe anything on the social media mainly because government media outlets were used as propaganda machine, he added.

Elias stressed “the government has opened the media environment which is a good start but at the same time it should give access to information.”

He urged government officials to give accurate information whenever they are asked.

“As much as the social media has contributed a lot to changing the government in Ethiopia it is also at the same time contributing for the ethnic tension going on around the country,” he articulated.

Government officials are not providing precise and timely information, he complained and added that this partly contributes for dissemination of disinformation on the social media and people tend to take it for granted.

Disinformation disseminated by media is confusing and encouraging for protest and by far is becoming the national threat, Professor Zekaryas Kenea said.

Addis Ababa University Law Lecturer, Professor Zekaryas Kena said some media houses have the problem of exaggerating the evidences and information.

He added that some also tend to engage in distributing information that provokes hatred and campaigns people to stand against other.

“There are media that disseminate disinformation through digital media, internet, and sometimes the mainstream media too. Therefore, there are signs that some wrong information reach to the public that were not supposed to, so measures should be taken,” Professor Zekaryas elaborated.

He stressed that media houses should not be the mouth pieces of political parties as it does not fit to the norms of the profession.

Stating that there are times that the public is forced to listen to unusual and enigmatic news, the Law Professor noted “it seems that there is moral failure and we need to work on that too.”

He urged the government to do comprehensive work in building the capacity of professionals on fact-checking and building trust of the public to rely on disseminated information.

It is to be recalled that, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed underscored in March 2019, that the fake news and hate speech that has been spreading widely on the social media forced the government to consider law enforcement.

Accordingly, Ethiopia is preparing a law that will help to minimize damages caused by fake news and hate speech disseminated on social media and the government is communicating with facebook and other companies on how to control fake news and hate speech.