Aslı TUNÇ
American rock band, Plain White T’s song, “hate is a strong word” could have easily been the soundtrack of the hate speech panel held a few days ago. Although the lyrics are about a nasty break-up, a good song can help to ease the sinking feeling caused by talking, listening to and writing so much about hate. The panel which was about hate speech on the mainstream media and on the Internet covered all aspects of discriminatory, racist, homophobic and xenophobic discourses with a lot of examples and the panelists had a chance to have a good discussion with the listeners after an exhausting 3-hour long paper presentations. If you had a bit of experience with mostly boring and pretentious atmosphere of academic conferences, you would understand what a treat it was for us as participants to have such a vibrant Q&A session. Let me give you a few highlights about the themes we have discussed.
Our society has been suffering from a deep polarization for the last three decades. However, the level of intolerance has dramatically increased after drastic demographic shifts caused by the forcible relocation of Kurdish villagers en masse, social and cultural tensions among ethnic groups, being divided in political and ideological camps. We came to such a point where we have no tolerance to people other than nationalist heterosexual male Turks with Sunni Islamic belief.
Undoubtedly media play a significant role in cultivating hate in the Turkish society presenting as news and entertainment. Rising nationalism, prejudices and anti-Semitism lay the groundwork for the spread of hate messages through media. In the mainstream print media, the newspapers, Yeniçağ, Vakit and Yenişafak use a great deal of discriminatory language in their news coverage. It is very common that the mainstream dailies publish news items that protect the suspect in hate crimes, especially in the crimes committed against ethnic and religious minorities, homosexuals and transvestites. As a consequence, those groups feel vulnerable, anxious, insecure and they have no choice but leaving their democratic rights behind. They become mute and fall into the spiral of silence. The media amplify their fear by pumping up hate through the news coverage. Besides the news items and dreadful headlines, some columns are also full of chauvinist, militarist, sexist and fascist expressions fueled by hate. The columnists seem to think that they are exempt from all journalistic codes and ethics.
There are also many things to be discussed when it comes to hate crimes or bias crime. Hate crimes unlike ordinary crimes are designed to intimidate the victim and the victim’s community not on the basis of who they are but what they represent. The message that is conveyed by offenses is intended to reach to a larger community, not just the victim as an individual. Turkey still does not have a seperate law to address hate crimes or define the concept in legal terms. Additionally Turkey does not have any data collection systems or regulations (Hate Crime Statistics Act) to show the level of hate crimes such as in Germany and in the US. We have Article 216 of the Penal Code that bans all kinds of discrimination but some of the judges still find a way to interpret that Article to punish the victims instead.
Hate speech on the Internet, specifically hate groups on the Facebook and videos on Youtube are definitely sickening and extremely offensive. But you don’t need to go too far. Hate is between the lines of a news item we read everyday, is hidden on a deceptively innocent headline, or even embedded in our “flagship” newspaper’s slogan that reads “Turkey belongs to Turks.”
