On 28 June 2018, the Agency for Electronic Media and the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized the last in a series of three workshops on the promotion of tolerance and the prevention of hate speech in the media in Kolasin.

The Representative of the Agency for Electronic Media, Đorđe Vujnović, said that it was important to bear in mind that hate speech, as a term for which there was no universal definition, was very liable to manipulation, and was often used in verbal conflicts to identify an opponent as somebody using this forbidden means of communication.

The case law of the European Court of Human Rights related to hate speech and or violation of the right to freedom of expression was presented at the workshop in order to show the editors, journalists and employees of the Agency for Electronic Media how to recognize hate speech. Furthermore, the importance of legal instruments, such as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Constitution, the Electronic Media Law, the Code of Conduct of Montenegrin Journalists, was underlined on this occasion.

It was concluded by the panellists that it was difficult to define the line where the freedom of expression ended and hate speech began. In the cases of publication of hate speech, the media outlets cannot justify their actions by saying that they did not know that it could result in discrimination, or that it could insult, shock or disturb the minorities or individuals. It is very important to work on the cooperation between journalists and lawyers in order to observe the right to freedom of expression, and satisfy the need of the public to know, on the one hand, and the need of an individual to have their reputation, honour and dignity protected on the other.

Photos from the workshop can be viewed here.

Press Release re third workshop on hate speech organized by AEM and OSCE 02.07.2018