DPP tightens noose on hate mongers

The DPP has issued new guidelines for prosecution of hate mongers and election offenders, heralding tough times ahead for perpetrators. 

Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji said his office retains the overall constitutional mandate to exercise state powers of prosecution.  

“The DPP’s direction must therefore be sought prior to making the decision to charge in cases of hate speech due to the immense public interest involved,” Haji said on Wednesday. 

Haji spoke at a time cases of hate speech are on the rise as the country heads to the August 9 polls.

His office has been under pressure to approve charges against key politicians accused of hate speech.

The DPP outlined the crucial steps, which must be adhered to by investigating officers and prosecutors to ensure successful convictions. 

In the guidelines, Haji warned prosecutors against making politically motivated decisions on election and hate charges, saying such would threaten justice. 

“When making charging decisions, prosecutors must be fair and objective, must not let personal views influence their decision and must be apolitical,” Haji said. 

The views include those based on ethnicity, gender, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, status, or gender identity of a suspect, accused person, victim or any witness.

The state prosecutor said apart from determining that the evidence collected meets the threshold before preferring charges, his officers must also soberly weigh the public interest. 

“Public interest is not what the public wants. It is what is in common good of the public,” Haji said on charging hate mongers under the National Cohesion and Integration law. 

Giving an example of public interest, Haji said the state does not have enormous resources needed to prosecute all social media hate mongers.  

“Hate speech has been exacerbated by use of social media. A lot of social media posts actually amount to hate speech. The prosecutor should therefore be guided by the public interest,” he said. 

The DPP said hate mongers can be charged after careful consideration of their status in society, the extent of the dissemination of the speech and the likelihood of imminent harm. 

“Politicians and public officials hold positions of leadership in society hence their utterances can influence a lot of people,” he said. 

Haji said hate speech can be hard to prove considering words can mean different things to different communities at different times.

He said prosecutors must rigorously ascertain the sufficiency of the evidence. 

“Hate speech is a global problem and there are guidelines developed to help the prosecutor determine whether a certain speech amounts to hate speech and warrants intervention,” Haji said. 

The DPP said the evidence submitted must be subjected through scrutiny to establish the social and political context, intent of the speaker, content and form as well as the likelihood of harm. 

In considering the decision to charge hate in hate speech offences, Haji ordered that hate speech should be the main count. 

“Investigators should ascertain whether hate mongers also derived proceeds of crime from their hate speech activities for instance, media houses and bloggers who are paid lots of money to spew forth hate speech,” Haji said. 

The DPP said prosecutors should collaborate with investigating agencies to not just secure both electronic and physical evidence but also professionally manage the case. 

Haji said, providing hate speech requires involvement of experts from various fields including IT for electronic evidence and communications experts who can authoritatively decipher meaning of words used to propagate hate speech.  

“As hate speech borders ethnic back ground cultural experts may be consulted to help the court understand the background of that community. One must establish the basis of the expert evidence as required by the Evidence Act,” he said. 

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)