Int'll Conference On Hate Speech In Media Held In Croatian Capital

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published November 07, 2018 | 03:45 PM

Croatia's Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek has called the need for adopting a legislative framework for media to address the issue of hate speech particularly in a digital environment.

ZAGREB, Croatia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Nov, 2018 ) :Croatia's Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek has called the need for adopting a legislative framework for media to address the issue of hate speech particularly in a digital environment.

Addressing at the two-day international conference titled "Addressing hate speech in the media: the role of regulatory authorities and the judiciary", organised by the Council of Europe and the Croatian Agency for Electronic Media, the Minister said hate speech has a negative impact on society.

The conference is being attended by legal and media experts, judges, prosecutors, representatives of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and numerous European regulatory and media self-regulatory bodies and civil society organisations.

Minister Korzinek underscored the need for education and media literacy and to motivate citizens to critically analyse news and information.

Head of Information Society Department at the Council of Europe, Patrick Penninckx underlined that it was crucial to recognize hate speech in the global context because without that, it was impossible to define.

"We live in an age of populism and rise of nationalism and extremism, which is a worrying tendency. As such, we have to educate citizens and particularly young people as well as reporters, and I dare say, politicians, about the use of speech not for populist objectives but to achieve harmony in our societies," Penninckx told Hina.

Assistant Foreign and European Affairs Minister Mario Horvatic emphasised the significance of the Zagreb conference in light of Croatia's chairmanship of the Council of Europe.

Tanja Kersevan Smokvina, a lecturer at Maribor University, spoke about recognising and penalising hate speech in the media.