The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), a regional independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization will from August 1, 2013 carry out daily monitoring of expressions used on key programmes on 26 radio stations across the country. The exercise will span the next three months,August 1 - October 31. In a press statement issued July 26, MFWA said the exercise, which is aimed at enhancing professionalism and reducing incidence of hate speech and pro-violence expressions in the media, is in response to the need for the media to contribute to mitigating violence during and after the adjudication of the 2012 Election Petition by the Supreme Court. According to the Foundation, the legal dispute over the 2012 presidential results at the Supreme Court, coupled with inflammatory comments by political activists mainly from the ruling NDC and opposition NPP, have heightened fears and anxieties about potential violence after the Court’s judgement. The project will involve daily monitoring of expressions used by politicians and activists in discussing and commenting on the proceedings and ruling of the SC. The findings of the monitoring will be issued as weekly reports and communicated to the public through the media to name and shame culprits. In addition, the project will involve activities aimed at sensitising the public to accept the judgement of the SC in good faith. This, according to MFWA, will be done in collaboration with moderators of current affairs and political discussion programmes on the selected stations. There will also be bi-weekly radio discussion programmes to provide a platform for language experts to discuss the weekly reports and educate the general public on the effects of indecent expression on national peace and stability. As part of initial activities, a comprehensive monitoring instrument has been developed with the support of language and communications experts and media practitioners. A total of 26 monitors - most of whom worked under the 2012 election campaign monitoring project - have been engaged for the project. The project is being supported by STAR-Ghana.