Media
campaigning traditionally provides a unique space for different political
options to confront the views of their opponents. In all contexts, including
well-established and transitional democracies, political debates facilitated by
the media are essential in informing voters of policy options and winning their
support.
Although it is
envisaged as a platform for issues-based presentation and confrontation of
political arguments, media campaigning often turns into derogation and inflammatory
speeches. In many societies, insults towards women in politics tend to focus on
undermining their capacity as leaders in comparison to men, who are assumed to
be born leaders. In order to mobilize support, political parties sometimes
abuse campaign opportunities and access to the media to disseminate false
statements, create imaginary threats and feelings of insecurity. As outlined in
the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) Countering Hate Speech in Elections: Strategies for Electoral
Management Bodies,[1] while hate speech during
campaigning does not automatically result in electoral violence, it does
increase the risk of it. Use of hate speech during elections, such as through ‘hate-spin’
– ‘a
double-sided technique that combines hate speech (incitement through
vilification) with manufactured offense-taking (the performance of righteous
indignation)’[2]
– can be a tool used to manufacture offense and result in voter intimidation,
for example through the use of violence.
Empirical cases:
- Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential and legislative elections 2006. During the electoral campaign
period a number of incidents of hate speeches were reported.[3] Two rival political
parties engaged in hate speech campaigns with ethnic dimensions. One party’s campaign
had the slogan ‘100 percent Congolese’ – an allusion to the leader of the other
party, the incumbent president, who is of foreign descent. In addition, the
same party had its own television channel which broadcast images of atrocities
allegedly committed by the incumbent president during the 1963–2008 civil war. Some
media announcements also encouraged people to attack the head of the election
commission. This rhetoric had severe consequences and triggered violence during
a Kinshasa political party rally where six people were killed, several of them
police officers. The political party of the incumbent president used this to its
advantage by broadcasting images of the deceased police officers , with the apparent
aim of bringing the other party into contempt.[4]
Interrelated factors: presence of non-state armed actors (external); human rights violations (external);[5] problematic voter
registration (internal); problematic ballot counting
and result tallying (internal).[6]
[1]
https://www.ifes.org/publications/countering-hate-speech-elections-strategies-electoral-management-bodies
[2] George, Cherian. Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and
Its Threat to Democracy. The MIT Press, 2017.
