The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) will host a religious broadcasters’ consultation to encourage tolerance among the producers of religious television programmes in the state and private media.
ERC Chairman Bishop Juan Edghill made this announcement during the Commission’s Annual Constituency Meeting with the Christian community on Wednesday last. The decision was taken after a survey of the electronic media showed that there was a proliferation of religious programmes and sometimes the content was not always conducive to maintaining religious tolerance in the society.
A meeting was held at the ERC headquarters with representatives from Christian denominations on the parliamentary list of entities that are to be consulted to elect members to serve on the commission and other Christian bodies to review its work over the past year. The meeting was also expected to suggest ways the commission could enhance its role to promote good relations among the citizenry.
As regards the conceptualization of the religious broadcasters’ consultation, Edghill told the meeting that in some cases religious broadcasters go beyond propagating their faith to demonizing other religious beliefs. Edghill also outlined other programmes the commission has prioritized for the year: a series of Inter/Intra Community Meetings aimed at providing opportunities for racially exclusive communities and mixed communities to interface with each other; Local Government Election Monitoring to ensure that race is not factored into political parties’ campaigns; continuing regional visits and public education and awareness programmes.
Meanwhile, one Christian leader said the ERC should be celebrated for the work it has done over the past four years. He said the ERC has carried out its mandate as regards investigating complaints, conflict resolution, education, education and awareness and research commendably.
The chairman submitted that the ERC will soon focus on reviewing legislation that will deal with the treating of public holidays such as Good Friday as it is felt this and other Christian holidays are given more respect than those from other religions. He said too that the Commission’s capacity to deal with racial discrimination has been limited because it does not have the power to subpoena.
Edghill said that over the last four years the ERC had recommended in its Annual Report that the omission from Article 212 (D) of the Constitution should be included to allow it to fulfil this aspect of its mandate.
