ELSA’s Legal & Social Policy Organizing Committee has amalgamated months of hard work, co-operation, planning & research to produce a policy paper entitled "Hate Speech: Negotiating Peace in the Ambit of Freedom of Speech’.
ELSA is an organization which revolves around having “a just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity” and this idea is endorsed in this publication by Sara Ezabe and her team of researchers, writers and supporters.
This policy and legal paper aims at speculating the way forward while using existing legislation as the tool of overcoming hate speech online. Whilst the online world has brought with it many positive changes, yet it has also created unprecedented challenges and despite Maltese and European Legislation safeguarding our people from Hate Speech, uncovering the virtual world is a totally different story.
The paper promises to serve as a tool for politicians, international and civil society organisations, community leaders, equality bodies, representatives from the worlds of education, work and media, and academics.
Overall, one can say that this is indeed a very exhaustive paper on the matter. It delves into law, the European perspective, how hate speech is observed online in Europe and also how it is linked to journalism, and goes all the way to place an international perspective in the equation too.
The detailed paper concludes that there is a fine line between protecting freedom of speech and protecting the victims of hate speech and thus, there needs to be a balance. It also goes on to say that as a consequence of cross-jurisdictional elements, the current international human rights frameworks together with their limitations are not enough when it comes to tackling the problem of hate speech.
ELSA Malta is holding an event tomorrow morning at San Anton Palace on the occassion of Human Rights Day, whereby the organisation will be launching this paper on Hate Speech together with the Sixth Edition of the ELSA Malta Law Review.
