The conference “Improving Response to Hate Speech” was held in Zagreb (and online) on October 15, as the final event of the project “Improved Response to Hate Speech through Legal Research, Advocacy and Training – REASON”.
At the conference, the methodological approach and results of empirical research on criminal and misdemeanour cases of hate speech in Croatia from 2016 to 2021 were presented, as well as research-based recommendations for improving public policies and practice.
In the first part of the conference, after the welcome addresses by the representatives of the coordinator and partners – Professor Goranka Lalić Novak, President of the CLC, and Ms. Klaudija Kregar Orešković, Deputy Director of the Government Office for Human Rights and the Rights of National Minorities, and with the moderation of the Project Manager, Ms. Ivana Eterović (CLC) the results were presented by three experts engaged in the project. The first lecture – “Presentation of research methodology and presentation of selected phenomenological features of hate speech in the Republic of Croatia” was held by Ines Sučić, Ph.D., Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. Then, criminal law professors Maja Munivrana and Aleksandar Maršavelski presented the results and recommendations in relation to the prosecution of public incitement to violence and hatred from Art. 325 of the Criminal Code, and in relation to prosecuting misdemeanour hate speech, respectively.
After presenting the results of the research, Professor Ksenija Turković from the Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb held a lecture entitled “Delineation of Punishable Hate Speech and Freedom of Expression in the Light of the Recent Practice of the European Court of Human Rights”, while Professor Đorđe Gardašević from the Department of Constitutional Law of the same Faculty spoke about constitutional law aspects of hate speech.
In the final part of the conference, a panel discussion “Hate speech – Perspectives and Challenges” was held, moderated by Professors Maršavelski and Munivrana. The panelists were (in alphabetical order): Ivan Crnčec, State Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation of the Republic of Croatia; Professor Enes Kulenović, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb; Natalija Labavić, attorney at law, Domagoj Maričić, Assistant Director of the Croatian Regulatory Agency for Network Activities; Jurica Miočić, head of the Basic Police Service, Directorate for Public Order and Security, Police Directorate, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia; Josip Popovac, President of the Council for Electronic Media and Director of the Agency for Electronic Media, and Dijana Kesonja, Deputy Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia.
The conference was followed live and online by 95 participants, most of whom actively contributed to the meeting through questions and discussion.
