Media Monitoring Report 2020 - Hate Speech, Discriminatory Language and Sexist slur

• Reaction of the audience (readers’ comments) in articles that contain hate/discriminatory speech.

We hope that findings presented in this study are valuable for a series of institutions and stakeholders in Albania, those that have a role in advancing human rights and protection from discrimination for all groups in need.

Firstly, we hope that the findings of this monitoring will help leaders and professional people of the online media in Albania – journalists – to have a better understanding of the impact of their daily work in establishing social realities for a number of groups in need such as women, LGBTI community, emigrants, etc. In addition, we hope that by identifying some approaches of online media professionals, especially regarding ways of selecting news that contain hate or discriminatory speech, we will enhance their awareness for improving these practices, increasing the quality of information provided, and avoiding the use of hate or discriminatory speech in the media.

Secondly, we hope that this report gives a clearer overview to the Albanian institutions that deal directly with issues of the media and protection of human rights, such as the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, the People’s Advocate (Ombudsman), or the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA). This monitoring findings might help these institutions to have evidence in improving conditions for depicting groups in need in the media or for focusing their attempts on those groups that have been identified in this study as the most affected groups by the hate/discriminatory speech.

Thirdly, this report might help all non-governmental organizations which, in their work, emphasize protection of the rights of groups in need.

Lastly, this report aims to raise awareness of the public and frequent users of online media by increasing knowledge on issues of hate and discriminatory speech in the media and by equipping them with concrete skills on how to distinguish and avoid hate speech in the media. For this purpose, the language used in this report will be comprehensible and practical for all readers.

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