Code for Regulation of Hate Speech in Slovenian Web Portals

Policy Response DateDecember 14, 2010 Country: Slovenia Address: Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana General Type: Racist discourse Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence, Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, Arabophobia, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Religious intolerance, Inter-ethnic, Intra-ethnic, Nationalism, Homophobia, On grounds of disability, On grounds of other belief
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Linguistic minorities, Asylum seekers, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Persons with disability Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Policing - law enforcement, Media, Internet, Anti-discrimination, Anti-racism, Daily life Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Internet

As a response to internet media forums which are the main site for hate speech, a Code for Regulation of Hate Speech in Slovenian Web Portals has been signed by six media companies and it is still open for signatures for other internet forums.  The Code was prepared by a Center for Safer Internet and its anti-hate speech internet point called The Web Eye (Spletno oko) located at the University for Social Studies (Fakulteta za družbene vede) in Slovenia. The Code addresses problems of hate speech on the internet, such as the fact that some internet forums enable internet users to post comments anonymously, without any previous registration that would enable identification of the user in cases of hate speech, which constitute a crime of incitement to hatred, violence and intolerance, and the problems with investigations of those crimes encountered by the police and the prosecutor’s office. The Code binds its signatories to introduce a system of moderation of their forums in accordance with the guidelines prepared by a working group comprised of the representatives of the signatories of the Code, and the system of registration of internet users who wish to post comments on the specific forum. The Code also obliges its signatories to include both a warning to their forums that hate speech may constitute a crime of incitement to hatred, violence and intolerance under Article 297 of the Criminal Code, as well as a button next to each comment which other users may press to report comments that in their opinion amounted to a crime. Pressing a button leads a user to a standardized form for reporting internet hate speech to The Web Eye as a centralized point, which then helps to clear which cases amount to hate speech and which not, and reports those which do to the police. 

http://www.spletno-oko.si/uploadi/editor/1292489478Kodeks.pdf