14th April 2015
By Stefanie Chernow

UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2015

EJN panel on Sunday, 3 May 2015 at 16:00

What Can Journalists Do About Hate?

The shocking events in Paris in January 2015 have highlighted the crisis facing journalists worldwide, both as victims of hatred and intolerance and as communicators in the frontline of a struggle to protect press freedom. There is increasing manipulation of social media and even some news media to divide communities by defining people into “us” and “them” groups, and even by inciting violence against the “other”. In many places, laws are in place, but sometimes they simply don’t work or end up being used to deny legitimate speech. In this situation do we need yet more controls on the Internet? Can educational and journalistic strategies be more effective than law in combating hatred and preserving editorial independ ence and media pluralism? How can journalists and others in the public information space identify and isolate hateful communications, while giving voice to all sides in a conflict? What can journalists do to promote debate about, the differences between ex pression that may offend, and expression which constitutes hate speech? One answer may be to encourage all communicators to be more ethical and to give perspective, context and humanity in their work. Another answer may be to encourage media partnerships with and coverage of civil society initiatives to counter hatred online and, at the same time, for journalists to actively support media and information literacy programmes at all levels of society.

Facilitator : Mr Chris Elliott, The Guardian ’s Readers’ Editor, UK

Speakers:
Mr Artūrs Kučs, Docent at University of Latvia
Mr Hamid Mir, Senior Journalist, GEO TV, Pakistan
Ms Dunja Mijatovič , OSCE Representative of the Media Freedom
Ms Rachel Nakitare, the President of the International Association of W omen in Radio and Television (IAWRT)

Website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/world-press-freedom-day