Interactive lecture "Freedom of expression: how not to suffer for statements in media and on the Internet and not to violate the anti-extremism law. Kyrgyz reality and Russian practices” with participation of invited expert Alexander Verkhovsky, director of Sova Center for Information and Analysis (Russia) was held on February 4, 2016.
Experts, lawyers, journalists, representatives of international and public organizations were invited to the event.
School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies has presented its interim report "Hate Speech in
Media, Internet and Public Discourse of Kyrgyzstan – 2015”.
The report was based on the analysis of hate content carried in the surveyed print, broadcast, online media and social networks in Kyrgyz and Russian languages for November-December 2015 and data compared to other periods of the year, as well as the findings based on field studies.
The freedom of expression in the media scene of Kyrgyzstan is closely related to the lexis of hate, which is based on clearly xenophobic statements, political incorrectness and emphasizes poor journalistic standards in the media, while posts in social networks sometimes provoke network aggression. Despite the fact that Kyrgyzstan ranks higher in the Press Freedom Index[1], than the neighboring states in Central Asia, it still has problems with ethics.
The discriminatory language against minorities was also detected in those media outlets that describe themselves as analytical media. In their articles and reports about the problems faced by minorities, authors also create their negative image. Thus, the media contribute to the spreading of xenophobia – ethnic, religious, social and other types.
In 2015, the number of social groups that are seen as victims of hate speech and possible victims of hatred-based crimes has increased. If in previous years experts mainly identified definite ethnic groups, the analysis of the media sphere by the end of the year showed that the main target of hate speech in Kyrgyzstan are ethnic groups, Muslims and LGBT.
The Representative Office of
the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Kyrgyzstan, with the
participation of representatives of the CIS Antiterrorist Center, Ministry of
Internal Affairs, the State Commission on Religious Affairs, NGOs, experts and
researchers, discussed the main causes of radicalization and the ways to
prevent them.
Such data were
submitted in the report of School of Peacemaking and Media Technologies that
was presented on November 19 at the forum "Right to Equality and
Nondiscrimination: Peacebuilding and Prevention of Ethnic Conflicts”.
The presentation was prepared under the media monitoring project supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
The report contained the trends and dynamics of ethnic stereotypes used, as well as the types of hate speech spread in the media and on the internet of Kyrgyzstan, spoken out by high profile speakers.
The project aims to monitor and analysis of hate speech in the media and public discourse, development of recommendations, and public outreach campaign to prevent violence and discrimination against minorities in order to protect human rights and basic freedoms.
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School of Peacemaking and Media Technology,
involved in media development and hate speech studies, has looked into the
debates and comments in media and on the web that appeared after some Russian
and local media outlets, online newspapers reprinted the article titled On Lions
and Jackals with the subtitle
Central State Channel in Kyrgyzstan Promotes Nazism.
The article was published on 19 May 2015 both on the websiteand in Moskovsky Komsomolets-Asia newspaper. It discussed inappropriate statements of Abdrakhman Alymbaev, former chairman of the National Union of Writers of Kyrgyzstan and public figure, in a TV programme Tooluktardyn Tok Shousu (Highlanders Talk Show) broadcasted on OTRK in December 2014. The host and guest of the programme were discussing the differences between ethnic groups residing in Kyrgyzstan. The author of the article in MK-Asia accused Abdrakhmanov and OTRK of "voicing Nazi ideas”.
Also, a 4-minute video demonstrating a part of this TV programme was uploaded to YouTube on May 19, 2015.
Experts of School of Peacemaking and Media Technologyfound more than 150 short articles, posts, comments that discussed this topic in media and on the web last week. The majority of publications contained hate speech, xenophobic clichés and stereotypes, dehumanising metaphors concerning both parties. When quoting public speakers commenting on this issue, journalists conveyed hate speech, which had negative impact on both the audience and commentators that were immediately involved in the debate and used offensive language.
School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia is launching a series of master classes, workshops and consultations for NGOs, media, journalists, activists and users on mastering the skills of digital, linguistic and speech security, development of organizational and individual strategies of cyber risk management, creation of collective and individual safety cards for working on the internet, designing of network security policy.
Highly professional team of experts, with vast experience in media sphere, information security, researches and monitoring, has developed a training course for Central Asia subject to local specifics, laws, level of internet penetration, activity of users, and network communications.
Tools of linguistic and digital security will help improve network communications in the digital age, teach how journalists, rights activists and other users can make themselves safe from any possible internet attacks, and from voice or visual traps of internet trolls, who interfere with personal network communications.
Military men near the aftermarket during mass clashes, Osh, June 201
Training’s participants on mediation and conflict management are building the Tower of Peace, Bishkek, April 2011
Training in destroying stereotypes for journalists, Bishkek, April 2012
Workshop on production of team reporting in multinational journalist groups, Bishkek, August 2012
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia is announcing the call for participation in the "Reporting on minority…
25 journalists and media workers from various regions of Kyrgyzstan have been trained to counter the propaganda of violent extremism and hate in…
