A/HRC/7/19/Add.4 page 15 45. The Special Rapporteur asked his counterparts about their views on the issue of racist violence, the effectiveness of the State in treating racism as an aggravating circumstance when racist crimes are committed and regarding the State’s role to curb incitement to racial hatred. In particular, he highlighted the ongoing discussions at the international level concerning the balance between freedom of expression and respect for other rights that are threatened by hate speech. 46. In this line, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court explicitly mentioned the provisions in the Criminal Code that establish criminal responsibility for incitement to racial, ethnic or religious hatred. However, he also highlighted that even though Courts are aware of this provision, they are rarely used due to the limited number of cases that reach them. He expressed his view that an important number of the cases of racist violence are acts of hooliganism and vandalism, which are problems that exist in most societies. 47. The Minister of Justice also referred to the legal prohibition to incite racial or ethnic hatred and exemplified some actions that have taken place in this regard, mentioning a draft law on the amendment of the Criminal Code, under consideration by the Parliament, which prohibits the public display of Nazi or Soviet symbols. 48. Authorities also referred to the role of the Seimas-appointed Inspector of Journalist Ethics to examine cases of hate speech contained in the media, including Internet sites. The Special Rapporteur met with the inspector to collect his views on this issue. The Inspector has the duty to investigate complaints of violations of professional ethics by journalists, editors and publishers, which includes cases of incitement to racial hatred published in the printed, audio-visual or digital media. The Inspectorate reaffirmed the view that there is no widespread discrimination in Lithuanian journalism and that very few cases of hate speech are brought to his attention. However, he highlighted some issues where the action of the Inspectorate is important. In particular, he referred to cases of journalistic articles regarding criminal cases that make an explicit reference to ethnic background when the perpetrator is a member of a minority community. He also recalled a recommendation issued by his Office requesting Lithuanian newspapers not to publish the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in 2005. 49. Another aspect related to incitement to racial hatred concerns measures to prevent the emergence of political parties that promote an openly racist and xenophobic platform. In this regard, the Ministry of Justice oversees whether the political programmes of the parties are in conformity with national laws and international agreements, including the principle of prohibition of racial or ethnic discrimination. According to government officials, Lithuania’s democratic tradition and heritage of tolerance have in practice made it impossible that local political parties would promote racist platforms. 50. Several political leaders in the Seimas, including the Speaker and the President of the Committee on Human Rights, conveyed to the Special Rapporteur the information that political parties in Lithuania have not used any type of racist or discriminatory rhetoric in the past and that electoral campaigns across the ideological spectrum have not built on such a discourse. In this line, even nationalistic parties in Lithuania have refrained from engaging in such rhetoric, focusing rather on the foreign relations between Lithuania and its neighbours and not on local communities.