“Hate speech” was discussed in St. Petersburg

On March 24, 2004, a press conference dedicated to the launch of an interregional project against "hate speech" in the media was held at the Regional Press Institute.

According to one of its participants, Leonid Lvov, co-chair of the Harold and Selma Light Legal Aid Center (Light Center), manifestations of "hate speech" are associated with the virtual absence of civil society: "National societies react only when violence touches their representatives: they defiled Jewish a cemetery - the Jewish community protests, a Syrian student was killed - an Arab one protests. And they do not react to violence against representatives of other communities in this way .

According to Viktor Voronkov, president of the Center for Independent Sociological Research, there is "a direct connection between violence and publications about violence. These publications are evidence that violence can go unpunished . "

As the most striking examples of hate speech, some headlines from the central newspapers were cited: "Homeless are worse than terrorists", "Homeless people are more dangerous than Basayev", "Save Russia", "Kill the" black " .

The press conference was preceded by an action held by the St. Petersburg branch of the Agency for Social Information (ASI-North-West). For a week, a young man dressed in a "hate speech" costume tried to get into the St. Petersburg editorial offices. If they didn’t let him in (which, according to the regional project coordinator Svetlana Sapozhnikova, happened in most cases), he handed gratitude to the editorial representatives for the fact that the path to this shameful phenomenon was closed at least symbolically, but at the same time expressed regret that “the language enmity" is still present on the pages of this or that publication. "At the same time, he invited journalists to a press conference.

At the end of the press conference, the journalists were offered to symbolically swallow the "hate speech". Their role was played by the usual puff "tongues".

Sources

• St. Petersburg journalists offered to "swallow" hate speech // ASI. 2004. March 24.