Magazinović: Stop hate speech in BiH before tragic consequences occur

The President of the Main Board of the Social Democratic Party of BiH and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Saša Magazinović, addressed a conference in Sarajevo titled "The fight against intolerance and discrimination through the fight against hate speech – the role of parliamentarians," organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

In his address to members of the parliaments of the Council of Europe, representatives of the executive and legislative authorities from BiH, representatives of non-governmental and international organizations, as well as representatives of political parties, Magazinović highlighted the significance and magnitude of the problem of hate speech in BiH, and the very important role, as well as responsibility, of politicians and the media.

Expressing satisfaction that both houses of the BiH Parliament, as well as entity parliaments, by adopting identical text of the Declaration on the Condemnation of Hate Speech, have shown, among other things, an awareness that politics and politicians are very often one of the generators of hate speech, he emphasized that there is a lot of work ahead for institutions to significantly reduce this phenomenon in BiH society.

Magazinović, who is a member of the International Alliance to Combat Hate, believes that this is one of the topics where there should be no differences between the government and the opposition, meaning that joint action should be ensured with the non-governmental sector and especially with the media, in order to avoid negative consequences.

- I hope that an incident or more incidents with tragic consequences, caused by hate speech, will not have to occur for all those responsible to become more serious in resolving this problem, which is very present in our society - Magazinović said, concluding his presentation.

The Council of Europe conference held in Sarajevo is one of a series of activities aimed at raising awareness about the problem of hate speech, especially in politics and the media, and initiating new and effective solutions for its prevention and punishment.