Hate speech, sometimes referred to as hate propaganda or extreme speech, is widespread in the Turkish media, especially when the issues are minority rights, armed conflict and the European Union accession process, a recent study dissecting hate speech in the media has found.
“The provocative, racist and discriminatory language used in the news, and in particular in headlines and spots, become tools used in fuelling the enmity and polarization in society, while also affirming the stereotypes,” stated the study, titled “Hate speech and hate crimes: Wounding words and acts” and released by the Hrant Dink International Foundation, which organized a conference April 9-11 on the topic.
The study, which made public the results of the foundation’s study of the Turkish national press, looked into 24 newspapers with high levels of circulation, leaving aside their supplements.
The most targeted groups were Turkish citizens of Kurdish and Armenian origin. Greeks, Christians in general and Jews were also often the subjects of news stories or columns that contained hate speech.
The study considered bad language/defamation/insult; animosity/wartime discourse; exaggeration/ascribing/distortion; and stereotyping while examining the articles.
Three quarters of the hate speech identified by the researchers was found in columns; the rest was in news articles. The study examined newspapers published in August, September, October and November of last year.
While hate speech found its way easily to the pages of the H.O. Tercüman, Ortadoğu, Vakit, Yeniçağ, Sözcü and Türkiye dailies, considered nationalist and conservative, and somewhat marginalized with their limited circulation, it was also in the mainstream Hürriyet and Star dailies, although less so in the latter.
Sabah newsroom ombudsman Yavuz Baydar, who made a presentation at the conference, told Sunday’s Zaman that he is not surprised that hate speech was even in the mainstream media.
“Because racism, ultranationalism and antisemitism are deeply internalized and common among opinion-makers and editors in Turkey. For years, the newspapers have operated in a milieu that allowed them to lash out with the fiercest rhetoric against other nationalities and creeds,” he said.
Baydar added: “The law, which is weak on covering areas of hate speech, has not been properly implemented, if at all. Therefore, the perpetrators of hate crimes, realizing that they get away with it, have crept in the so-called ‘mainstream’ press. Almost on a daily basis, particularly in the sports pages, one can see spectacular examples of it. The words ‘Armenian’ or ‘Jew,’ for example have been used as insults, staining labels. It is normalized.”
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