Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has engaged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media managers to promote the participatory governance process in Benin.
Benin will hold a presidential election on 11 April, 2021, with President Patrice Talon running for a second term.
The central aim of the meeting was to strengthen the processes leading to the provision of the necessary conducive atmosphere for the holding of peaceful democratic elections in the West African country.
The videoconferencing was also aimed at fashioning out a way of enhancing the capacity of the media while discouraging media establishments from being used to promote hate speech within and outside the electoral circle.
Regarding the CSOs and NGOs, involved in the Benin electoral processes,
The meeting sought to enhance the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) on strategic areas of concern, including showcasing of initiatives and best practices.
On the media, the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Benin, Ambassador Blaise Diplo, stressed the importance of maintaining positive media reportage and developing a programme with rich content for promoting peaceful elections during the electioneering period.
Diplo challenged them to dispel the commonly held notion in the country that journalists trigger violence.
Diplo further commended the efforts of the media regulatory body in Benin for its promotion of positive values even in the face of limited resources.
Experts from Burkina Faso and Ghana shared their experiences on how they developed programme content that promoted and showcased good media ethical values with the context of enhancing peaceful participatory democracy values and national unity.
Source: Modern Ghana
Photo source: AFP
