Twenty two Syrian journalists participated in the fifth forum organized by the Ethical Charter for Syrian Media (ECSM) under the title “Hate Speech: Why again?”

The forum which was held on Sunday in Istanbul aimed at exchanging views on the concept of hate speech and the role of mass media in limiting such a speech.

The forum was held in four sessions. In the first session, the meeting facilitator, the Lebanese journalist Lilian Dawoud submitted a presentation on the concepts of hate speech and freedom of speech. There was an active participation by other journalists involved in the meeting.

The second and third sessions witnessed discussions on the topic of the forum which focused on what can and can’t be accepted in media. The discussions also focused on the role of Syrian media in the hate speech that is vastly used among Syrian individuals and society organizations.

The forum was concluded by a fourth session during which a number of recommendations were issued by participants, on top of them working on the release of a special terminology index for hate speech terms and training and developing editorial boards in media organizations on avoiding such terms. Participants also recommended the need to hold raising awareness activities to mitigate hate speech and its negative effects.

The Fifth Forum is one of the activities organized by ECSM which aim at learning about international and regional experiences related to ethical journalism.