BIRN Launches ‘Mapping Hate’ Database in Bosnia
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Ilustracija: BIRN BiH
The new BIRN database, Mapping Hate, launched on Thursday, collects statements which, according to methodology specially designed by BIRN, constitute hate speech, discriminatory rhetoric or denial of genocide and other war crimes.
The data, accumulated through media monitoring, has been logged, updated and added to the database since early October this year.
The database also includes details of hate-motivated incidents which BIRN’s journalists have noted from reports in the media and on social networks.
While doing reports and investigations into extreme and far-right groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN’s journalists noticed an increase in hate-related rhetoric and incidents, said Bosnia and Herzegovina’s executive director Denis Dzidic.
“We noticed that their narratives are increasingly visible in everyday politics and that political hatred is overflowing into the Bosnian social environment and into everyday life. We hope that this database will demonstrate the dangers of hate speech and the denial of crimes and all the consequences of hate speech on the most vulnerable parts of Bosnian society,” Dzidic said.
Most incidents logged in the database so far are connected to to graffiti or murals glorifying convicted war criminals, as well as the desecration of memorials or religious landmarks.
BIRN’s analysis of Twitter posts showed that the number of public statements denying the Srebrenica genocide has decreased after former High Representative Valentin Inzko imposed legal amendments criminalizing the denial or glorification of genocide and war crimes.
However, an increasing number of murals and graffiti glorifying convicted war criminals has been observed, while municipal authorities have not been removing them.
The Mapping Hate database will continue to monitor hate speech until next year’s elections in order to assess the influence of pre-election narratives on hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The database will log politicians’ statements promoting hate speech or discriminatory speech, denying or downplaying crimes and glorifying convicted war criminals.
As the project continues, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina will report on hate speech, hate-motivated incidents and their consequences, as well as the reactions of the judicial authorities.
Coupled with the OSCE’s Hate Monitor’, BIRN hopes that the database will offer an insight into trends in hate speech and related incidents, and prompt more comprehensive and quicker prosecutions of these criminal offences.
The Mapping Hate project is financed by the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands through MATRA – Regional Rule of Law Programme.
The database can be accessed here, as well as via the #MapiranjeMržnje hashtag on Twitter and Facebook.
