Novakovic: For some media outlets, hate speech is editorial policy

(Source: Zoomer) Yesterday, a regional media conference “Where have diverse voices gone” was held in Belgrade, in which our portal also participated, as an example of good practice of cross-border cooperation for the story of the “Open Balkans” initiative.

The results of media monitoring in the Balkan countries were presented at the conference. The main finding of this monitoring in all countries is the high presence of sexism, or hate speech towards women, as well as hate speech towards the LGBT community.

Speaking at the panel “Media and Hate Speech: The Role of (Self) Regulation”, Press Council representative Gordana Novakovic pointed out that politicians continue to use inflammatory rhetoric that encourages discrimination and hate speech, but also spreading of negative stereotypes about minority groups and the policies of neighboring countries represent the editorial policy fo some media outlets.

“It is a general framework, but if you look at individual texts – it is difficult to find hate speech in the texts themselves. It has moved from the texts to readers comments, which are not so much on the media portals, but on the official pages on social networks. “Hate speech is more direct here,” Novakovic pointed out, adding that sometimes the media highlight the text so to deliberately provoking these comments, and sometimes certain events, such as Pride or football matches, provoke comments by themselves. However, sometimes it is not clear what led to those comments.

“We had racist comments on the news of Kofi Annan’s death. Who could have expected that? Also, homophobic comments appeared after the reception at which our Prime Minister appeared with her partner. “Sometimes it is difficult to predict what can provoke that kind of comment,” Novakovic explained.

Media experts are increasingly noticing a type of manipulation used by the media, where they consciously choose interlocutors who are known for their negative and hostile attitudes.

“They say what journalists want to say, but they must not, and then they defend themselves before the Press Council that they only conveyed someone’s opinion,” Novakovic concluded.

When it comes to complaints received by the Press Council, more complaints are related to discrimination than to hate speech. Part of the problem is that the Press Council can only be approached by a person who is personally effected, or non-governmental organizations that represent the rights of minority groups endangered by hate speech or discrimination in the media. Most often, they are Roma and LGBT people, followed by Kosovo Albanians and Croats. One third of complaints are resolved through mediation, and these are mostly topics related to hate speech, and the media often remove controversial content without any problems after the reaction of the Press Council, which was assessed as a positive development.

Novaković: Pojedinim medijima govor mržnje je uređivačka politika