Political party leaders have urged the media, particularly radio stations, to blacklist any Ghanaian, irrespective of his or her profile or political affiliation, by preventing such persons from appearing in their studios, if they use hate speech or insults. According to the leaders, without the media platform, such nation wreckers would not be able to continue their heinous trade of pouring out invectives and that the blacklisting would serve as a deterrent to others who might want to use such unpalatable language in the name of scoring cheap political points. They also expressed the belief that it was high time political parties did the honourable thing by taking the bull by the horns and publicly reprimand their members who use insulting language, lies and unfounded allegations which tended to raise the political temperature of the country. The chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ladi Nylander; Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan, the National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), and Mr Fred Oware, Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), were sharing their views about the increasing trend of hate speech, naked insults and blatant lies about political opponents on the various radio stations. In recent times, President J.E.A. Mills, some leading members of the clergy and traditional leaders have had cause to complain bitterly about the issue of vituperations targeted at political opponents. Around the same time, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) held a workshop for political parties and senior media practitioners to find effective ways to minimise the polarisation of the political terrain, which had become evident at almost every political discussion which, in many cases, resulted in exchange of vitriol. The 1994 Rwandan genocide, described as one of the most appalling catastrophes of the 20th century, saw the media playing a significant part both internally and internationally. Prior to the 100-day genocide which claimed over 800,000 lives, radio stations and newspapers were clandestinely used by the conspirators to dehumanise their potential victims, Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. During the genocide, the radio was used by the Hutu extremist conspirators to mobilise the Hutu majority to co-ordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for extermination were faithfully executed. Sharing his view on the issue with the Daily Graphic, Mr Boateng Gyan expressed worry that people from both sides of the political divide, especially the youth, were becoming heroes overnight simply because they were able to muster courage and rain abuses on leaders of opposing parties. He stressed that although the practice could not be eliminated overnight by the use of political discourse, the media should set good examples by blacklisting people who used such unpalatable language on their radio stations, whether the person was a Deputy Minister or a Member of Parliament. He explained that without the media platform, such invective, verbal abuse and unsubstantiated allegations targeted at destroying the hard-earned reputations of people of the opposing side for no justifiable reason would not see the light of day. The NDC National Organiser expressed worry that some radio station hosts intentionally set the agenda for people to use such language and at times went to the extent of allowing people to insult each other and exchange blows without their intervention and called on Ghanaians to be wary of such radio stations and their presenters. He said political parties must also be seen and heard taking measures such as publicly reprimanding and castigating as well as condemning such acts so that the general public would appreciate the fact that they did not subscribe to things of that nature. For his part, Mr Nylander stated that to demonstrate its abhorrence for hate speech and insults, the CPP on several occasions reprimanded and even suspended some of its members for their public utterances, as well as publicly disassociating itself from certain utterances by people claiming to be members of the party. He hinted that he and some leading members of his party on their own refused to speak on certain radio stations simply because those stations had gained notoriety for pitching political opponents against each other and setting the platform for confrontations. Mr Nylander said there were more serious issues confronting the people of Ghana that needed more attention and never understood people who got the opportunity to speak on radio or interviewed by print media reporters who tended to rain insults on their political opponents. He also supported the much held view that people who spewed out insults, vituperations and hate language about their opponents should be banned from all radio stations across the country. Mr Oware said he welcomed any legitimate means that the radio stations and other stakeholders would employ to sanitise the media, but cautioned that it should not lead to gagging people from making their legitimate views known. He said one could easily make his or her point to the understanding of most Ghanaians without engaging in insults. Alhaji Ramadan was disappointed that some politicians believed that their ability to insult their opponents the more, then it had the tendency to make them popular and enhance their political fortunes during elections, forgetting that they were being a bad influence on young people. He said some political leaders were equally to blame for the unfortunate trend because they had institutionalised and constantly supported the phenomenon of serial callers who phoned in to radio stations to insult leaders of opposing political parties to the amusement of the political parties that aided them. Alhaji Ramadan wondered why people who claimed to be speaking for political parties should sideline the real issues about health, education, infrastructure, environmental pollution, crime and energy and veers into the arena of insults and ended up wasting precious time. He also called on the government and Parliament to facilitate the passage of the Broadcasting Law to bring some sanity into the system and whip people into line.