THE PRESS COUNCIL IN BIH
Held
PRESS CONFERENCE
CAMPAIGN „STOP! HATE SPEECH“
10:30 – 11:30, Wednesday 19th June 2019
Sarajevo, Hotel Europe, Mezzanin hall
The Press Council, self-regulatory body for print and online media in BiH, in cooperation with the Institute for Reporting on War and Peace - IWPR and Media Content Management - MCM, organized a press conference on June 19th 2019. at Hotel Europe, to present the start of the Campaign - "Stop! Hate Speech 2019".
For the third time, the Press Council in BiH is implementing the Campaign “Stop! Hate speech".
The aim of the project is to protect the freedom of speech and freedom of expression, through the method of monitoring and prevention of the spread of hate speech in visitors' comments, and the education of all affected by this problem. Hate speech is an acute problem encountered by online media in BiH.
At the press conference Ljiljana Zurovac, program director of the Press and Online Press Council in BiH, Merdijana Sadovic, Regional Director of the Institute for Reporting on War and Peace, and Adis Hasakovic, Director of Media Content Management spoke about the significance and planned activities of the Campaign "Stop! Hate Speech".
The results of the Campaign "Stop! Hate Speech 2018 " were presented to the media representatives. The Program Director of the Press Council in BiH, Ljiljana Zurovac, explained that the Press Council in BiH, in cooperation with project partners, wants to help online media in the fight against hate speech, and provide them with tools for better response to irresponsible visitors’ comments in order to protect the freedom of expression. She pointed out that it would be a simpler solution to close down the option of comments on online portals, but it would not be in line with the media freedom in democratic societies.
During the campaign "STOP! Hate Speech 2018", the Press Council in BiH registered 2,544 cases of hate speech. Over 926 warnings were issued, and more than 1,300 comments containing hate speech were erased.
In the activities of this year's campaign more than twenty online media, marketing advertisers and students of journalism in BiH will be actively involved, because of the urgent need to prevent hate speech.
The Press Council in BiH will organize, together with its partners, trainings for online media employees on recognizing and responding to hate speech in their online space, as well as educations for journalism students throughout BiH on hate speech and how human rights and freedoms are endangered by spreading hate speech. For the first time in this kind of campaign advertisers are involved, within direct meetings, workshops and active participation in the fight against hate speech in online media.
Online media and marketing advertisers from BiH will work under a joint motto - We are against hate speech!
The Campaign “Stop! Hate speech” is supported by the International Organization for Migration - IOM and USAID. The Campaign "Stop! Hate Speech 2019" will last until January 2020.