“STOP! Hate Speech” campaign concludes in Bosnia and Herzegovina
29 November 2022, Sarajevo - The Press and Online Media Council in BiH, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), published the analysis of the “STOP! Hate Speech” campaign.
From 1 September to 16 October, this campaign aimed to monitor user comments across 12 BiH web portals.
This research suggests that, whilst hate speech is still present online, it has reduced. The researcher for this project, Vuk Vučetić, noted:
“The results show that, before and after the elections, insults, vulgarities, and quibbling dominated online portal comments, while relatively few radical calls to commit murder, as well as extreme forms of hate speech, were registered. These results may suggest, among other things, that media outlet newsrooms have exerted additional efforts to reduce the number of negative comments.”
In light of this, Brian Aggeler, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH furthered this sentiment:
“I am glad to see that the trend of using offensive, divisive or humiliating language during election campaigns appears to be decreasing. These results highlight the success of efforts to date, and encourage that we all bolster our efforts to tackle online hate speech. For further success, it is crucial to raise public awareness of how dangerous and detrimental hate speech is.”
The Press and Online Media Council in BiH co-operates with editors who strive to clean their media space of harmful speech and discriminatory rhetoric. According to Dzenana Burek, Executive Director of the Press Council in BiH:
“Hate speech, discriminatory and inciting speech does not represent freedom of speech but is abuse and is punishable under the law. In January 2022, the Press and Online Media Council adopted the Code for Print and Online Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which stipulates the editor's duty to remove comments that constitute hate speech. In extreme cases, editors are obliged to co-operate with the police and prosecutor's offices to reveal the identity of persons who abuse freedom of speech.”
The Mission will continue to work with partners across BiH to tackle online hate speech –during election periods and beyond.