Even during April, media accounts on social networks were flooded with insults, calls for violence, and there were also examples of comments containing hate speech. This shows that it is necessary for the media and society as a whole to be additionally engaged in order to suppress this form of communication that incites tensions and lowers the threshold of tolerance in society.
As announced by the Institute for Media of Montenegro (IMCG), these are the findings of the monitoring of part of the content on the portals Vijesti, CdM, RTCG and IN4S, as well as on the accounts of those media on the social network Facebook, which was carried out during April by the team of the Institute for Media.
"Enormous attention of readers and users was caused by the media coverage of the suicide attempt of the former president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, which required additional sensitivity, increased attention and engagement from the analyzed media. The media, however, showed an unequal approach when administering controversial content in readers' comments on portals and on their accounts on social networks. It is noticeable that the established media (Vijesti, CdM and RTCG) have made an effort to protect the right to privacy, so some have decided to increase pre-moderation or even ban commenting on sensitive information. Such a move is an example of good practices that prevent the possibility of stigmatization and violation of the right to privacy by presenting irrelevant details about the private life of the person being written about. This also shows that the Media Act, which regulates the way of commenting on portals, serves a social purpose," the IMCG press release points out.
They added that the problem of offensive and hateful speech on media accounts on social networks is not only the responsibility of the users, but also of the media, which needs to find a way to better manage those accounts and remove objectionable content.
"When reporting on Medenica's suicide attempt, the analyzed media published this information without official confirmation. We remind you that the Code of Journalists and Journalists of Montenegro prescribes that when reporting on suicides journalists are required to be extremely attentive and measured and that the media are obliged to protect the right to privacy the people they report on. IMCG calls on the authorities to prevent the spread of misinformation and to react quickly in cases of great public interest and inform the public about the event. CdM, in addition, published a statement from the president of the Association of Journalists, Tihomir Burzanović, from TV Prva, who said that " Vesna Medenica, given the evil she committed in Montenegro, should kill herself, not try to kill herself, but actually kill herself. She deserved much worse things". The portal, transmitting this content, indicated with an editorial intervention that such a statement was unacceptable and "scandalous". This information caused several controversial comments on the CdM portal, against the president of the Association of Journalists", the statement reads.
IMCG said that in the observed period, the most controversial comments were recorded on the IN4S portal.
"The comments on the platform of that media contained inflammatory speech, a call to violence and serious insults," IMCG said.
They stated that this analysis is part of the project "Diagnosis and therapy of freedom of expression, hate speech and ethnic tensions", which is carried out by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), IMCG and UL info, with the aim of raising awareness about the harmfulness of the spread of offensive speech. hatred and misinformation.
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