Hate speech was discussed in St. Petersburg

On March 12, 2007, a discussion on the topic "Hate speech in the federal and regional media" was held in St. Petersburg, organized by the Regional Press Institute (director - Anna Sharogradskaya). Moscow experts Anna Sevortyan (Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights), Galina Kozhevnikova (Center SOVA), Mikhail Melnikov (Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations) and representatives of the expert communities of St. Petersburg Oksana Karpenko (Center for Independent Sociological Research) and Valentina Uzunova (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences).

The participants in the discussion - journalists, representatives of the expert community, activists of public organizations - were presented with the results of the latest study on hate speech, which the SOVA Center had completed by the beginning of 2007. The question also arose about the effectiveness and existence of mechanisms for corporate self-regulation of the journalistic community. The absence of these mechanisms, in the context of the growth of xenophobia, according to the participants in the discussion, gave rise to the notorious bill banning the mention of the ethnicity of participants in criminal episodes, initiated by the Moscow City Duma.

Oksana Karpenko drew attention to the fact that negative ethnic stereotypes are formed not only in the media, but also, for example, in school textbooks, the ethnocentricity of which has long been the subject of scientists' attention and concern. In her opinion, even a "positive", but artificial division into ethnic groups, lays the foundations for confrontational perception (the division of society into "us" and "them", "not like us"). And such implicit confrontational attitudes, which are laid down from childhood, can later result in the most unpredictable consequences.

Valentina Uzunova introduced the participants of the discussion to the results of her new research on the "language of tattoos" accepted in the skinhead environment. In her opinion, the totality of tattoos that are used in the right-wing radical environment is a non-linear, but complex and understandable "for the insiders" language of identification by skinheads of each other. And despite the fact that outside of a comprehensive analysis, the full meaning of the tattoo message to "comrades-in-arms" is not readable, each element of a Nazi or other right-wing radical tattoo is an expression of one or another type of aggression of the image carrier.

Further, the discussion participants discussed the relationship between hate speech and the boundaries of freedom of speech, the problems of journalistic competence and ethics that arise in the framework of covering the topic of xenophobia and racist violence. A separate topic of discussion was the question of the relationship between civil liberties and xenophobic agitation. Yuri Vdovin, deputy head of the "Civil Control" noted in particular that the "Russian March", like other rallies and processions, the authorities of St. Petersburg had no right to ban. However, they were obliged to strictly control its conduct and stop any illegal actions, including xenophobic campaigning.

On the same day, as part of the project, Anna Sharogradskaya, director of the Institute of Regional Press, and Anna Sevortyan, expert of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, held a discussion at the Higher School of Economics on "Mass Media Coverage of Vulnerable Groups of Society."

On March 13 at the Institute of Television, Business and Design for students of the Faculty of Journalism a seminar "Coverage of the conflict in the media" was held.

See also:

Sources

• The media does not know how to cover the problems of nationalism // Lenizdat.Ru. 2007. March 13.
• Journalists are taught tolerance // There.
• Discussion on the topic "Hate speech in the regional and federal press" took place in St. Petersburg // Pravoslavie.Ru. 2007. March 12.
• Muslims lead in the press as "objects of enmity" // Islam.Ru. 2007. March 14.