A call for the regulation of ghanaweb.com comments page

I want to draw your attention to an issue of national concern which needs urgent response. There is a disturbing situation on your website, www.ghanaweb.com, where troubling comments are posted by unanimous and unscrupulous people hiding behind the internet. For some time now, the comments section of your website has been wrought with ethnic and tribal insults, dehumanizing of tribes, political and civil war songs, vulgar language, unacceptable denigration of political figures and opinion leaders, amongst others.

Over the years, our society has fortunately succeeded in stigmatizing such practices, making it unattractive for people to openly engage in them. Apart from some few dishonorable politicians who made such comments in the recent past, these practices hardly exist in the media. News anchors, hosts of radio and television programs as well as newspaper editors have prevented such provocative and divisive comments in the media.

However, a quick glance of the comments section of your website, www.ghanaweb.com proves otherwise. A first time visitor will be stunned as to the level of segregation of all forms existing in the minds of some Ghanaians, especially the literate. These disgraceful ethnic and political extremists who couldn’t have practiced their vices openly, cowardly hide behind internet walls and throw salvos of divisiveness, ethnic supremacy and segregation, vitriolic hate speeches and sometimes vicious calls for ethnic independence on a daily basis.

This is a country where crude and unrefined politics has created a leeway and rationale for tribal hatred. This is a politically immature country where tribes and ethnic groups are detested with disgust, or loved with passion, just because of their political inclination. This is a country where primitive individuals, clad in rudimentary conceptions and prejudice, use ethnicity fueled by political alignment as a principal factor in choosing between good and evil. Offering such an easy, unregulated platform (on your website) for political and social discussion in such an environment is a call for anarchy, which clearly can be seen fledgling. We cannot allow innocent minds to be brainwashed and set up for ethnic war by perpetrators of this practice.

In any case, if such comments are not allowed on our airwaves because of the perceived effects it may have on the listening public, why allow same on a website when it may have the same effect on the reading public? Your website has an average monthly visitor rating of over 80,000 (quantcast estimates) which translates to over 2,600 daily visits in the US alone. This is significant enough of an exposure to call for the regulation of the comments page.

SOLUTION

Throughout the world, online media have developed ways in regulating these occurrences. Below are the most popular; Intercepting reader comments and making appropriate changes before posting or deletion. (as done on myjoyonline.com) Utilizing moderating tools to filter comments and redact commonly used offensive and undesirable words and phrases. Requiring users to register their identities through social media sites and email accounts before posting comments. (as done on cnn.com)

The regulation of online comments may be controversial and inconsistent with the practices and norms of freedom of expression. However, morality and the upholding of our national peace and cohesion should be paramount and jealously guarded as is done in the developed nations. In the past decade, many people in the UK and America have been incarcerated for expressing themselves in ways that incited violence, provoked ethnic intimidation, dehumanized individuals and groups and undermined societal peace. Freedom of expression has never been absolute in any country in the world and will never be.

Lest we forget, International Criminal and Human Right laws prohibits the creation of an atmosphere which provides fertile grounds for the later commission of criminal acts inspired by the instigation and incitement of political and tribal hate speech and war propaganda. Some people were indicted for the Rwandan genocide, not because they called for the annihilation of tribal Tutsis, but because they provided the grounds which prepared people’s minds for the genocide.

I hope this humble request is given the necessary consideration. The peace, unity and development of this country is more important than the excitement derived from instantly seeing one's comments live on a webpage, irrespective of its potential to ignite unrest and promote divisiveness in our dear country. If this appeal is not accorded the needed consideration, further appeals will be made to higher interest groups and organizations. We do it for God and country.

Andy S. H. Sevordzi

Process Engineer

Corpus Christi, Texas cc// Media Houses Stakeholders