‘Hate speech and hate crimes: wounding words and acts’

The study, which made public the results of the foundation’s study of the Turkish national press, looked into 24 newspapers with high levels of circulation, leaving aside their supplements.

The most targeted groups were Turkish citizens of Kurdish and Armenian origin. Greeks, Christians in general and Jews were also often the subjects of news stories or columns that contained hate speech.

The study considered bad language/defamation/insult; animosity/wartime discourse; exaggeration/ascribing/distortion; and stereotyping while examining the articles.

Three quarters of the hate speech identified by the researchers was found in columns; the rest was in news articles. The study examined newspapers published in August, September, October and November of last year.

While hate speech found its way easily to the pages of the H.O. Tercüman, Ortadoğu, Vakit, Yeniçağ, Sözcü and Türkiye dailies -- considered nationalist and conservative, and somewhat marginalized with their limited circulation -- it was also in the mainstream Hürriyet and Star dailies, although less so in the latter.

Sabah newsroom ombudsman Yavuz Baydar, who made a presentation at the conference, told Sunday’s Zaman that he is not surprised that hate speech was even in the mainstream media.

“Because racism, ultranationalism and anti-Semitism are deeply internalized and common among opinion-makers and editors in Turkey. For years, the newspapers have operated in a milieu that allowed them to lash out with the fiercest rhetoric against other nationalities and creeds,” he said.

Baydar added: “The law, which is weak on covering areas of hate speech, has not been properly implemented, if at all. Therefore, the perpetrators of hate crimes, realizing that they get away with it, have crept in the so-called ‘mainstream’ press. Almost on a daily basis, particularly in the sports pages, one can see spectacular examples of it. The words ‘Armenian’ or ‘Jew,’ for example, have been used as insults, staining labels. It is normalized.”

Aksiyon newsweekly columnist Ali Bayramoğlu draws attention to one striking example from the study, falling into the category of bad language, defamation and insult. The example is from Hürriyet, in a column from a well-known columnist on July 6, 2009.

As Bayramoğlu recounted, columnist Yılmaz Özdil wrote about an imaginary meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and leader of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) Ahmet Türk. Critical of such a get-together, Özdil described Türk as a politician who has a “bad Kurdish accent,” without saying it outright but by jokingly imitating his accent in writing.

More recently, the same columnist targeted Türk again in one of his columns after Türk was punched in the face on April 12 and had his nose broken after reading a press statement in front of a courthouse.

“The person who made his fist a hammer of justice and pounded it into the nose of Türk actually verbalized the feelings of many people in this country,” Özdil wrote.

He also wrote, “Let me ask then ... if it is a ‘democratic right’ to open fire on and kill the children of this country, how can beating a party leader be labeled as ‘racism’?”

Özdils’ words led to a lawsuit. Approximately 50 lawyers registered with the Diyarbakır Bar Association filed criminal charges against him last week at the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office, demanding judicial action in accordance with Articles 215 and 216 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), on “praising the crime and the criminal” and “provoking people to hatred and enmity.”

Hate crime is defined by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as having two elements, as Essex Üniversity Professor Kevin Boyle, who made a presentation at the conference, noted.

“There must first be a criminal offense which is committed, and that crime is committed with a biased motive. It is this biased motive, this prejudice that distinguishes hate crime from ordinary crime. Hate crimes can be crimes of violence, or they can be attacks on property. Just as with hate speech, the individuals or groups who are the target of hate crimes share some characteristic -- such as their ethnicity, national identity, religious beliefs and practices,” he stated. “But while hate crime and hate speech may be distinct, there is no doubt that they are linked in practice. Hate speech creates the risk of hate crime.”

According to the Council of Europe, hate speech comprises “all forms of expressions which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance.”

Boyle also noted hate speech can be controlled through efforts to raise professional standards in the media and by ensuring the participation of minorities in the media.

“But the most important need in confronting hate speech and hate crime is to strengthen this country’s commitment to both the highest standards of freedom of expression and to the values of equality and non-discrimination for all who live there,” Boyle added.

When it comes to how to do it, Baydar said: “Article 216 of the Penal Code, covering ‘inciting hatred’, must be more clearly formulated as to include racism and anti-Semitism. It must be rigorously implemented. But in order to avoid, court rulings, the media outlets must set a filter mechanism inside newsrooms.”

In order to do that, “standards editors” might be appointed to supervise the abuses.

“Columns that contain hate speech must be prevented from going to print or edited out. Each media outlet must internally ‘educate’ its reporters and editors on the subject. And, both ombudsmen and the press councils must pay attention to violations. Lastly, civil society must display vigilance and monitor the media on a daily basis and publicly complain or file for indictment,” he said.

Supported by the European Com-mission’s European Instrument for Democratization and Human Rights, Freidrich Neumann Stiftung and the Global Dialogue organization, the International Hrant Dink Foundation will continue to monitor the media in regards to hate speech.