A/HRC/28/64
religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, and will
address the major challenges to combating hate speech in the media. Different measures
and good practices that can be implemented by States and civil society actors will be
analysed.
B.
Examples
35.
There are numerous examples, both historical and present-day, of how media is used
as a means of portraying minority groups in an offensive and stereotyped way and, in the
most extreme cases, to directly incite violence. The Nazi regime used media for a massive
propaganda campaign against Jews, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and others.
A propaganda ministry controlled the media, exerting censorship on books and authors to
suppress opposing viewpoints and to reinforce Nazi ideology of racial superiority and antiSemitism. Jews were repeatedly portrayed as the cause of societal problems and
dehumanized in the public discourse. Around six million Jews, as well as Roma and others
were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.
36.
During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, media played a major role in supporting and
inciting ethnic hatred and violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu populations. The
newspaper Kangura spread hatred against Tutsis, publishing articles and graphic cartoons
in which Tutsis were attacked. A wider audience was reached by radio stations, which were
key in transmitting hate propaganda and incitement to violence. Radio Rwanda and Radio
Télévision des Milles Collines (RTML) instigated, encouraged and directed massacres.
Hate messages broadcast during the genocide referred to Tutsis as “cockroaches” and
issued instructions to kill them. Nearly one million people were killed.
37.
In the post-9/11 era, Islam and Muslims have been subject to stigmatization and
hostility in Western media. Certain media outlets have identified Islam with terrorism,
which, according to the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, is a major driver of resurgent
Islamophobia around the world (E/CN.4/2006/17). Despite many civil society organizations
delivering pro-Muslim discourses after the September 11 attacks, anti-Islamic fringe
organizations have exploited mass media to spread messages of fear and anger. The former
Independent Expert on minority issues noted in a report (A/HRC/13/23/Add.2) that
members of Muslim and Arab communities in Canada stated that negative stereotypes had
been reinforced since September 2001, including in the mass media, resulting in their
reluctance to engage in public debate or raise their concerns.
38.
Prejudices and entrenched stereotypes against Roma are common and Roma
communities are frequently the target of degrading and inflammatory language. In 2013,
the case of a young blonde girl who was found living in a Roma settlement in Greece,
prompted a wave of anti-Roma reports and accusations that Roma had abducted her. Such
allegations prompted additional allegations from other countries. The accusations were
subsequently found to be unfounded. Indeed, they were made prior to a comprehensive
investigation and were based on sensationalist media coverage. The Special Rapporteur
called5 on media and commentators to refrain from generalizations on the supposed
criminality of Roma and warned that hateful rhetoric would trigger further stigmatization
and even violence against Roma.
39.
In the Central African Republic, hate speech has been recognized as having played a
role in inflaming and fuelling violence and has been described by United Nations officials
5
8
See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13915&.