THE MEDIA Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is taking measures to ensure professionalism in media reportage and discussions before and after the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the election dispute before it.

According to the Deputy Executive Director of the Foundation, Mr. Sulemana Braimah, the legal dispute over the 2012 presidential results at the SC, coupled with inflammatory comments by political activists mainly from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), have heightened fears and anxieties about potential violence after the court's verdict.

In view of this, the Foundation has obtained funding from STAR-Ghana to embark on a language monitoring programme on twenty six (26) radio stations across the country, with majority of the stations in Accra, he announced.

Addressing members of the media in Accra, yesterday, he said that the project would involve daily monitoring of expressions used by politicians and activists discussing and commenting on the proceedings and ruling of the SC across the nation.

To achieve this, a comprehensive monitoring instrument has been developed with the support of language and communication experts, as well as media practitioners.

He noted that 26 monitors have been trained and each person would monitor a station, adding, "each person will be given a recording equipment to provide evidence of the indecent expression."

The exercise, which would monitor key programmes on the radio stations would start on August 1, 2013 and end on October 31, 2013.

Mr. Braimah said the project is aimed at enhancing professionalism and reducing the incidence of hate speech and pro-violence expressions in the media. He added that the project is also "in response to the need for the media to contribute to mitigating violence during and after the adjudication of the 2012 election petition."

He pointed out that the findings of the monitoring exercise would be issued as weekly reports and communicated to the public through the media to name and shame culprits.

Furthermore, he said the project would involve a bi-weekly radio discussion programmes to provide 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.

To ensure that those who would be cited for using indecent language, especially media personnel are punished, the Foundation is working with other stakeholders including the National Media Commission, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and Ghana Journalists Association (GIJ) to apply sanctions.

He said the Foundation was working to also involve the National Communications Authority (NCA) as one of the institutions with the mandate to handle issues relating to the media, saying, "We are giving them free evidence, so expect them to take it from there and do their work."

Also, he urged the media to follow up on the reports that would be released on the project by demanding responses from stakeholders such as the NMC and GJA among others. He lamented that such a follow up was missing in a similar project which was carried out ahead of the 2012 elections.

To further sensitize the general public to accept the verdict of the SC in good faith, the project would collaborate with moderators of current affairs and political discussion programmes on the selected stations to roll out specific topics in that regard.