On December 20, the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Montenegro launched a campaign to raise awareness about the harmfulness of hate speech in the online space, which they said emphasizes the importance of efforts to stop hate speech.
"The campaign includes a video that will be broadcast on two national TV stations and on social networks. The video shows examples of comments containing hate speech on news portals and social networks, calling on the public to recognize, report and stop hate speech on the Internet. The video also , raises public awareness of how hate speech affects victims, with the aim of strengthening people's safety and critical thinking while they are online and consuming media," the OSCE Mission statement points out.
The head of the OSCE Mission in Montenegro, Dominik Vagh, pointed out that supporting assertive access to information is one of the ways to eliminate hate speech.
"It is important that we join forces and work together to promote an approach free of hate speech. We need to be more aware of the impact that spoken words can have and the consequences they leave on people's lives. Thanks to the collaboration with our national partners, the Mission continues to raise awareness of this important topic, emphasizing the need for all citizens to be safe in their daily lives," Vag said.
The manager of the Mission's Media Program, Zuzana Paukova, said that hate speech is a big challenge in today's media environment.
"The mission continues to focus its efforts on providing space for freedom of expression, for reasoned, decent and engaged discussion, reducing the impact of hate speech and attacks on citizens of all professions," Paukova said.
The OSCE Mission said that the campaign is part of their continuous efforts to raise public awareness of the importance of a safe and professional media environment in Montenegro.
Bonus video:
