Equality Commissioner warns of frequent hate speech

Brankica Janković
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Serbia’s Equality Commissioner Brankica Jankovic warned on Tuesday that debates and the expression of different views on political and social issues “simply don’t exist any more” and warned that hate speech is much too present.

“They have given way to insults, denigration and being as loud as possible. We live in noise in which vulgarity has a special dimension before people choose one side or another and I sometimes have the feeling hat no one cares about the actual political ideas and programs by candidates at elections,” she told the state Radio TV Vojvodina (RTV).

Hate speech as the the most severe form of discrimination is present too often, she said. “It has somehow become normal to use hate speech and even get points for it from a number of people,” she said.

Jankovic said that the office of the Equality Commissioner is not a censor and can’t intergere in politics but added that it will issue a warning before the election campaign begins. “We won’t speak out for every case of hate speech because that could be interpreted to be taking one side or another,” she said.