Journalism in Times of War
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• Never encourage anyone to kill others • Do not support organizations or individuals who support hatred on any basis • Media outlets should formulate a code for journalists with specific implementation of mechanisms to prevent hate speech • Check your news piece against the five-point test for journalists developed by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) to assess your content before publishing and avoid hate speech.177 Some of this advice may sound obvious, but as we have seen in the examples above, it is very common for journalists in conflict contexts or war situations to violate these essential pointers. There are many factors behind the spread of hate speech in the media including the political developments in the region and the circumstances surrounding them. But the biggest disappointment is that some media outlets and journalists have drifted blindly behind the tide of such hate mongering. Many media outlets have so far failed to live up to the role of a guarantor of accountability. They have not been able to contribute to protect social peace, and promote values to promote dialogue and more tolerant societies at times where polarisation and the dehumanisation of others is on the rise worldwide. Journalists should be trained with a methodology and mechanisms to identify, avoid and counter hate speech. Making yourself aware of your speech and actions should be an everyday task – particularly when you are always walking on a thin line between informing and amplifying harmful voices that may undermine peace and threaten integrity and lives of other people.
A Guide to Identifying Types of Hate Speech With many definitions available, how does a journalist know what falls into hate speech and what does not? Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Article 19, proposes a typology of hate speech, scaled according to its severity: 1. Hate speech that must be prohibited; 2. Hate speech that may be prohibited; and 3. Lawful hate speech. The freedom of expression advocacy considers that deeply offensive expressions; blasphemy or “defamation” of religions; glorification of terrorist attacks; denial of historical events; defamation; and speech against the state and public officials, should not be considered hate speech. Consult the full toolkit here: https://goo.gl/qQGw3H
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Ethical Journalism Network, 2015. “Resources to Identify Hate Speech.”
http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/resources/publications/hate-speech (accessed July 17, 2017)