Hate Speech

The EJN’s 5-Point Test Infographics

The EJN’s 5-point test infographic has been translated into over 20 languages. Download it and use it in your newsroom. Contact us if you would like to support the campaign by translating the test into more languages.

Words Matter: A Glossary for Journalism in Cyprus

On 10 June 2018 a group of journalists from both sides of the divided island of Cyprus launched a small publication, Words Matter: A Glossary for Journalism in Cyprus. This handy guide to troublesome words and phrases routinely used by Cypriot media exposes how casual and thoughtless use of language contributes to hidden bias in the newsrooms on both sides of one of the world’s most enduring and bitter conflicts.

The glossary is the centerpiece of a Cyprus Dialogue Project which for the past two years has been promoting cooperation across the political divide that has separated Turkish-speaking Cypriots from fellow Greek-speaking islanders for decades. It is an invitation to media owners, editors and working journalists to discuss how they frame their stories and narratives and the language they use in so doing.

This glossary has been inspired by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (in the framework of its project “Cyprus Dialogue” with the Union of Cyprus Journalists and the Association of the Turkish Cypriot Journalists -and Basın Sen later) which, in partnership with the Ethical Journalism Network, a global coalition of media professional groups, has worked with a team of thoughtful and experienced colleagues in journalism, Dr. Bekir Azgın, Christos Christofides, Esra Aygin and Maria Siakalli, as proposed by the ethics committees on both sides of the island, who have taken over the implementation of the project.

Further information

• Download the glossary in English, Greek and Turkish: https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Words-Matter-A-Glossary-for-Journalism-in-Cyprus.pdf
• Read more about the OSCE Cyprus Dialogue project: https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/cyprus-dialogue.
• Read Aidan White’s introduction to the glossary: https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/resources/publications/words-matter-glossary-journalism-cyprus
• Read the EJN Press Release about the launch of the glossary: https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/words-matter-glossary-journalism-cyprus 

Glossary of Hate Speech in Egyptian Media

The Ethical Journalism Network, American University in Cairo and Egypt Media Development Programme launched a Glossary of Hate Speech in Egyptian Media in Cairo in October 2017, to help media identify hate speech and deal ethically with dangerous words and images. The glossary was given a regional launch at the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) conference in Jordan in December 2017 at a meeting of EJN’s Arab Media Hub to Combat Hate Speech in Journalism

The glossary provides background on how Egyptian law and the country’s constitution define hate speech, as well as relevant universal human rights principles. It provides examples of where media have fallen short of their ethical responsibilities when dealing with dangerous language and images, and illustrates good practice and provides guidance to help journalists and media identify hate speech and report on it in an ethical context using the EJN’s five-point test for hate speech.

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A Dilemma for Journalists the World Over

As part of the EJN’s 2016 publication, Ethics in the News, Cherian George wrote that hate speech presents a major challenge to today’s journalism.

Socially conscious journalists have been rightly alarmed at how rapidly hate-filled messages seep into, and often overwhelm, comment on the internet. Less talked about is how journalists’ own professional procedures — including how news is defined — may amplify the voices of hate propagandists. Then there are the media outlets that purvey intolerance, serving as ideological spokesmen and cheerleaders for forces of hate, from xenophobics to religious extremists.

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Turning the page of hate in media

At the Federation of Africa Journalists conference in Abuja, Nigeria, the EJN Africa representative Rachael Nakitare made a detailed presentation on the Africa sections of the Moving Stories report and the EJN’s 5-point test for hate speech. The EJN was able to support colleagues from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi to attend the session. This action and an earlier event in Nairobi has further extended EJN support in Africa and paved the way for a new programme in 2017. In September 2016 the EJN organised with the Ugandan Union of Journalists a media conference on migration, hate speech, ethics, safety and conflict organised in Kampala.

The EJN made a keynote address at a regional conference on Combating Hate Speech in Media organised by the Council of Europe which took place on 20-21 June in Tbilisi with participants from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. In August hate speech was again the focus of EJN interventions at meetings in Amman, Nairobi and in Palestine. Finally, in December last year, the EJN met with journalism leaders from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan in Cairo and put in place a programme of action for the Arab Media Hub Against Hate Speech for the coming year.

Press Club Brussels – EJN launches 5-point plan to reduce hateful propaganda promotion

As the 20-year anniversary of the horrors of genocide in Rwanda was marked in 2014 and with the recent Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris sparked by religious intolerance, the Ethical Journalism Network launched a five-point test in 2019 to help journalists and editors to identify speech that aims to generate intense hatred or incite violence. Ethical Journalism Network director Aidan White spoke at the Press Club Brussels to launch his organization’s latest initiative.

WATCH NOW

Also featured on:

• The Media Development Network – Hate-Speech: A Five-Point Test for Journalists
• Media Against Hate – EJN 5-point test for hate speech available in 30 languages
• Special dossier curated by Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa   for the Resource Centre on Press and Media Freedom: What is hate speech?