Overview
In March 2019, a group of journalists, media managers and press regulators from five countries in the Asia-Pacific region [Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Philippines and Malaysia] met in Kuala Lumpur.
They came together to collaboratively develop a set of guidelines to assist journalists covering hate speech, acts of violence and terrorism across the region.
Each set of guidelines begins by defining ‘hate speech’, ‘acts of violence’ and ‘terrorism’ respectively. It is important to establish such definitions before developing guidelines on how journalists and media professionals should respond to such situations.
These guidelines are divided into three sections, as there are specific considerations for each scenario, although some of the key principles are applicable in all three situations.
In interpreting these guidelines, consideration must be given to context, editorial justification, freedom of expression, public interest and the capacity of media.
Watch Aidan White explain how to use the EJN’s 5-Point Test for Hate Speech in this video
