A/HRC/28/64 66. There are few statistics available about representation of minorities in media organs due to the lack of disaggregated data. One study in the United Kingdom confirmed a gross imbalance between white and ethnic minority journalists in relation to training and employment patterns and opportunities within the news media. Only 0.5 per cent of national newspaper journalists and only 0.2 per cent of provincial press journalists were Black or Asian. In the broadcasting industry, an estimated 2.7 per cent of editorial staff were Black or Asian. While equal opportunities policies, ethnic minority monitoring and training schemes of the BBC have helped, half of all Black staff work on black-only radio and television programmes.27 67. Access by minority groups to the media in many countries is limited or completely restricted. Persons belonging to linguistic minorities are typically disadvantaged in the media marketplace, and the resulting lack of linguistic plurality within the media has been referred to as “soft assimilation”, in that the only available media is in the language of the majority, which fails to reflect minority needs, preferences and issues. 68. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in its general recommendation No. 35 (2013) on combating racist hate speech, stressed the importance of media pluralism to counter racist hate speech and highlighted that it entails “facilitation of access to and ownership of media by minority, indigenous and other groups …, including media in their own languages” (para. 41). Representation of minority groups in the media is a crucial means to promote the participation of minorities in society and to incorporate pluralistic approaches. The Council of Europe has stressed the fundamental role of minority media in both playing a mediating role between communities and providing access to minority networks and to alternative sources of information. 69. While minority media can fulfil an important role in preserving language, culture and minority identity, it has very limited potential to balance negative stereotyping, stigmatization, homogenization or fight back against hate speech emanating from mainstream media. This is partly due to the fact that minority media tends to be accessed by minority audiences and messages broadcast by them are often regarded as inferior by the society at large, compared to differing majority media viewpoints. 70. Representation of minority groups in mainstream media is essential to ensure diversity in content and in the make-up and structures of media bodies themselves. However, this is hindered by the constant struggle of media organs to survive in competitive marketplaces where priorities are to reach maximum audiences and advertisers. The perception is that those goals can be best achieved by catering to the needs and interests of majority populations, so minority interests, voices and opinions tend be marginalized.28 The recruitment of journalists and media workers with diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds in today’s multicultural societies is a pressing need to achieve a more objective and “stereotype-free” media. C. Structural inequalities 71. Some scholars consider the right to freedom of expression as absolute, suggesting that democratic societies should not permit the exclusion of any views, even if they are offensive or inflammatory. Such theories often fail to recognize the fundamental existence 27 28 Simon Cottle, ed., Ethnic Minorities and the Media: Changing Cultural Boundaries (Berkshire, Open University Press, 2000). See OSCE-ODIHR, “Incitement to Hatred vs. Freedom of Expression: Challenges of combating hate crimes motivated by hate on the Internet”, report of Expert Meeting held in arsaw, 22 March 2010. Available from www.osce.org/odihr/68750?download=true. 15