"Hate is an Attitude Rather than a Feeling"

The first information meeting of the Hate Crime Law Campaign Platform on hate speech was done together with representatives of the media. Almost 60 non-governmental organizations came together to lodge the "Hate Crimes Law Campaign". Information meetings will be held for various professional groups. The first meeting at the Takism Hill Hotel in Istanbul on Saturday (4 February) was done in co-operation with journalists.

Speeches were delivered by Cengiz Alğan of the Hate Crime Law Campaign Platform and Prof Yasemin İnceoğlu of the Galatsaray University Faculty of Communication. The key aspects of the discussion were the importance of a Hate Crimes Law and hate speech in the media.

Alğan explained that 34 of the 56 member states of the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) enforced legal regulations related to hate crimes. However, Turkey still lacks an according law although hate crimes are common in the country he continued. In his opinion, a Hate Crimes Law constitues a priority.

"Hate speech is a prerequisite of hate crime" Alğan indicated and stressed the importance of gaining awareness about the language used in the media as a transforming and social power.

Prof İnceoğlu, lecturer at the Galatasaray University Department of Communication, first of all defined the term hate speech as "all forms of written and oral expressions that contain racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination against minorities/immigrants or women, religious intolerance, homophobia or prejudice and expression s that include humiliation, identifying somebody as a target or stigmatization".

İnceoğlu furthermore defined hate crime as "harming an individual, a group or property by mere reasons of race, religion, ethnic origin or gender identity".

The academic highlighted that hate should not be perceived as a feeling and said that the USA mentioned these offences as "prejudice crime" or "message crime".

"People who say that they killed somebody, attacked a person or humiliated a woman because he or she belonged to a certain group convey a certain message to other individuals. This means passivation and assimilation... In this context, hate is not a feeling but an attitude", İnceoğlu explained.

She exemplified that the media was not using hate speech as obvious as in the past in lurid headlines. However, hate speech was included in columns and news and therefore the fight against it became more difficult. "This again should be interpreted as a positive development. Since we gave it a name by calling it 'hate speech', it was removed from the headlines. In time it will also be removed from articles. This is what we are working for" İnceoğlu declared.

After the participants presented their views, the meeting continued with a discussion on ways to prevent hate speech in the media.

Signatures for the Hate Crimes Law Campaign are being gathered on the "imza.nefretme.org" website. (IC/VK)