Bali Media Forum calls for election-coverage training to confront hate speech

Media leaders from 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific region end a three-day conference in Bali, Indonesia with calls for a new movement to strengthen quality journalism and actions to confront the growth of online hate speech.

More than 70 participants who took part in the fifth annual Bali Media Forum agreed a final declaration, which highlights the importance of strengthening the craft of journalism, particularly at election time, and providing well-targeted election coverage training for editors and journalists.

Media need to confront hate speech with rational and fact-based speech, said Norwegian ambassador to Indonesia, Stig Ingemar Traavik.

Fairy tales Hate speech is like the trolls from Norwegian fairy tales, when you expose them to light they explode.

Tom Kent, standards editor of Associated Press, said: It does not mean that just because a statement is outrageous and hateful it is newsworthy. We need sound news judgments. What we don't need is more legislation.

This sentiment was echoed by the participants, but they also agreed that media need to do more to guard against all forms of unscrupulous interference in editorial work, including attempts to use media to spread malicious lies and hate speech.

Bettina Peters, director of development at the Thomson Foundation, proposed key principles for election-coverage training: It is important to involve editors from the start , she said.

They play a crucial role in defining how media organisations will cover the elections and but often training programmes do not address them directly.

A.S. Panneerselvan, readers' editor of The Hindu emphasised the need for well-trained moderators for newspapers' online forum sites: We spotted a coordinated and automated campaign against our coverage because we have sub-editors editing our comments page.

We want to engage with our readers and give them a voice, but we need to guard against falling victim to lobby groups that give the impression that our coverage receives negative feedback from a large number of readers when in reality it is just one group.

Final statement Participants agreed in the final statement that training is crucial for media to be prepared for free, independent, inclusive and tolerant election coverage. Such training should:

Put ethical standards at the heart of any course and use the best training modules and approaches available;

Focus on the dangers of hate-speech and the threats posed by sectarianism and extremism;

Involve editors and provide specific advice and training for them to prepare for the elections;

Ensure that media is fully involved and engaged with the public;

Be organised in advance and during the election period as part of a strategic programme involving all relevant groups in the media community.

Bagir Manan, chairman of the Indonesian Press Council, said:

We have parliamentary and presidential elections coming up in 2014 and it is crucial that we can organise election coverage training based on these principles. We hope to be able to organise training throughout Indonesia with the Thomson Foundation and with our partners in the region.

[View the story Bali Media Forum 2013: Ethical Journalism for Democracy on Storify]

The Bali Media Forum, which was held between 5 8 November, was organised by the Thomson Foundation in partnership with the Indonesian Press Council, the Institute for Peace and Democracy and the Ethical Journalism Network. It was supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2013/11/11/bali-med...
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