Pristina, February 6, 2024 – At a round-table, the Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj presented the report with recommendations “Language in public discourse in relation to the state’s obligations in guaranteeing freedom of expression and preventing hate speech” with the participation of representatives of the media, civil society and representatives of public institutions.

In his introductory speech, the Ombudsperson, Mr. Naim Qelaj said that freedom of expression is important in a democratic society and that this right must be exercised in accordance with other rights.

“This includes the state’s obligation to take measures against language that incites hatred against certain individuals or groups, based on race and racial discrimination, gender-based discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, as well as all forms that basically they have discrimination and not tolerance,” said Mr. Qelaj.

He added that hate speech based on discrimination against women, LGBTIQ+ persons and other vulnerable groups is increasing, especially on social networks.

“This has created the need to monitor, prevent and fight this language in all its forms. With this report, we wanted to debate an issue that plays an important role in the life of every citizen, in the rights of every citizen,” he said.

Mr. Tankut Soykan, deputy head of the Council of Europe’s office, emphasized that hate speech damages societies, it undermines social cohesion by putting individuals and groups against each other.

“This is a specifically poisonous circle, whereby the most vulnerable in the society suffer of hatred the most and get stigmatized,” said Mr. Soykan.

The findings of the report were discussed in two separate panels. In the first panel, on the topic “Inappropriate language in public discourse”, the MP, Mrs. Eliza Hoxha, Mr. Leonard Kerquki, author of the television show “Pressing”, Mrs. Milica Stojanović from NGO “Pravo na pravo” and Mr. Artan Muhaxheri, sociologist.

In the second panel, on the topic “The role of local institutions in the protection of freedom of expression and respect for its limits”, the following participated: Mr. Albert Zogaj, Chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Mr. Jeton Mehmeti, chairman of the Independent Media Commission, Mrs. Remzie Shahini Hoxhaj, lecturer in the journalism department and Imer Mushkolaj, executive director of the Press Council.

Panel participants emphasized that the report is published at a time when the language used in public is fragile, especially in social networks. The panelists underlined the need to do more from all to avoid hate speech, insult and slander, to preserve privacy, and to be careful with the public space so that it is not abused.

The report is based on monitoring, research and analysis of data collected from parliamentary sessions, televised debates and comments on social media, for the period from 2020 to 2022.

From the monitoring of nine parliamentary sessions of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, at different times, and the analysis of 33,000 words, it results that:

– no direct hate speech was found. However, in the speeches of some deputies, the use of hate speech was observed indirectly;

– form of expression, which can be defined as soft hate speech, appears several times, expressed as insults, or labels of political opponents, such as: “thief”, “criminal”, “thug”, as well as the frequent use of words: “theft” “corruption”, “crime”, “blackmail”, which can be seen as expressions that are included in the broader definition of hate speech, since, damaging the reputation of the targeted person or group of people , may cause hatred towards them;

– although sensitive political issues were at the core of several parliamentary sessions, in particular the session on the “Northern Issue” (October 4, 2021), there is no trace of insults or ethnic stereotypes in the transcripts of the analyzed sessions.

The report also found that in the session of March 16, 2022, negative statements towards LGBTIQ+ persons continued and were voiced by several deputies, who could not only openly advocate for the “natural family” and “preservation of the species” and ” traditions”, but also to verbalize prejudicial content against same-sex couples.

From the research and monitoring of 23 televised debates, held in three televised live broadcasts, and six televised telecasts broadcast on You Tube, including a televised telecast in Serbian language, it was found:

– when the language in televised debates is harsh, the possibility of having hate speech from the commentators is much greater;

– from the 12,581 analyzed comments, it turns out that every seventh comment contained hate speech and in 77.3% of their cases, they were caused by inappropriate discourse on television shows;

– in these comments, the main categories of hate speech are: political belief (27%), disability (14%), inhumane metaphors (13%) and ethnicity (8%);

– sexual orientation was the target of hate speech in 7% of the total. Religious belief ranks as the category with the least amount of hate speech, less than 1%;

– In terms of gender, 86% of hate speech comments are from men, while 9.3% are from women.

By monitoring and analyzing language on social media platforms, through analyzing comments from the Facebook pages of four online media outlets, the Report finds that:

– hate speech appears extremely rarely in news publications;

– hate speech is provoked not only by the topic being discussed, but also by readers’ comments in the thread of the debate;

– out of 43,511 analyzed comments, it was found that 1 in 15 comments contains hate speech;

– in comments on portals, inhumane metaphors, political belief, disability and sexuality are the most frequent categories as targets of hate speech;

– the report finds that after the session of March 16, 2022, there was a drastic increase in the number of comments with hate speech;

– in the online media in the Albanian language, 7% of the comments are rated as hate speech, due to ethnicity, while in the online media in the Serbian language, such comments are expressed in 21%.

The report was published with the financial support of the European Union and the Council of Europe, through the joint action “Combating discrimination and hatred”, that is part of the joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey”.

Read full report here -> https://shorturl.at/nqDX3