By- Amro Selim (Chairman of Elmoustkbal for media studies):
Hate speech is now one of the biggest challenges facing the world, but unfortunately it has been widely disseminated in recent times. A number of media around the world have turned to the media for combat platforms that use word and image as offensive missiles, which are methods of violence, extremism and perhaps terrorism.
Media and Global Social Dialogue
The media is the primary problem of public opinion in many societies. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a moral framework that rearranges the professional culture of the country and enables it to enrich social dialogue rather than undermine it. The world now needs more than ever the ethics of comparing the countries of the North and the South In an equal playing field that establishes professionalism and mutual respect as a basis for cooperation between different cultures.
The balance between freedom of expression and hate speech
The major dilemma facing many societies is the balance between maintaining freedom of opinion and expression and fighting hate speech. Certainly, any ideas that restrict freedom of opinion are for whatever reason leads to the possibility of creating a totalitarian government, racial intolerance and anti-Semitism, increasing violence on television, , And it has a broad impact on society and its culture. Therefore, restrictions on speech can be justified only when necessary to prevent actual or impending harm, such as violence or injury, this is often summarized as” clear and present danger” In rights.
Mutual media shells
The world has recently witnessed a series of terrorist incidents and attacks on religious symbols from multiple parties, activating hate speech and turning some of the media media and media platforms into offensive weapons hitting in every direction. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, some Arab and Muslim media likened terrorists to The link between the Islamic religion and the Arabic language and clothing and Arab traditions of terrorism, so that some described the existential war as we are the mother of the two, on the other hand was the Arab media as a battle against the survival of the major conspiracy and the target of his homeland M, resulting in terms used as bullets exchanged between different parties such as “jihadists” and “big conspiracy” and “holy war.”
Starting point:
Here I would like to put some points to activate the media role in the dialogue of civilizations instead of using it as a tool for conflict and fighting:
- Setting up an international media honor code sponsored by UNESCO or an international code of conduct for media.
- Teaching the basic rules of professional media for students as a lecture.
- Establish a UNESCO committee to issue an annual report documenting the information situation of each State through a specialized monitoring and evaluation committee.
- Engage in professional partnerships with social networking sites to encourage the fight against hatred through modern technological means and to spread the culture of dialogue among civilizations.
- Create a site that allows all writers of the world without any discrimination to write about their cultural backgrounds as well as establish a forum for effective interaction between them.
References:
– CARMEN AGUILERA-CARNERERO and ABDUL HALIK AZEEZ, Islamonausea, not Islamophobia ‘: The many faces of cyber hate speech, Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, Volume 9 Number 1, 2016.
– Clifford G. Christians, Social Dialogue and Media Ethics, Ethical Perspectives 7 (2): 182-193 (2000).
– Imran Awan, Islamophobia on Social Media: A Qualitative Analysis of the Facebook’s Walls of Hate, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, Vol 10, Issue 1 January – June 2016.
– Leandro Silva and group Analyzing the Targets of Hate in Online Social Media, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Proceedings of the Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2016).
– Nadine Strossen, Hate Speech and Pornography: Do We Have to Choose between Freedom of Speech and Equality ?, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Volume 46, Issue 2, 1996.
