20 November 2018
Houses of Parliament
Join the Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) for this exciting and timely talk on media coverage of hate speech in Turkey, in Committee Room 15, the House of Commons on Tuesday, 20th November 2018 from 7:00-9:00pm.
The event will kindly be hosted and chaired by Dan Carden MP, Labour MP for Liverpool, Walton.
In this Public Forum CEFTUS invites Yasemin Inceoglu to discuss the reasons behind the increasing polarization between different segments of Turkish society. The mainstream media reproduce and pump hate, both openly and disguisedly based on the concepts such as racism, ethnic prejudice, xenophobia and anti-Semitism while creating its own agenda as the ideological apparatus of the state in Turkey. Media use negative, cynic statements, curses, insults, exaggeration and contempt as a tool to present those groups as dangerous to public safety and boogeymen spreading risk and threat. Media reinforce the prejudice towards these marginalized groups –“the others” and at the same time make them feel unprotected and defenseless. This hate shows itself in outbursts of social lynch and discrimination and it reinforces the polarization in the society. “Hate speech” is a complicated and controversial term that is difficult to understand. The question “What is hate speech?” brings with it questions such as “Where is the boundary between freedom of expression and hate speech?”, “Is hate speech only produced against persons or minority people/groups?”, “Does every discourse that involves negative expressions and sentiments constitute hate speech?”, “How can we explain the relationship between hate speech and hate crimes?” I will address these questions by giving different examples of hate speech disseminated or produced/reproduced by the media.
Ms Yasemin Inceoglu is professor of journalism and member of the UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen and of the American Biography Institute with an expertise in her field.
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