Hate crime

Israeli settlers torched a mosque near the West Bank town of Ramallah overnight, Palestinian security officials said on Nov. 12, as violence intensified in the occupied territory.

"The settlers set fire to the whole of the first floor of the mosque" in the village of Al-Mughayir, near the Shilo settlement, a security official said.

The process of passing the anti-racism bill, which punishes hate crimes, is due to be completed on Tuesday.

More than one hundred Greek historians and academics have expressed reservations over aspects of draft legislation designed to outlaw Holocaust denial and expand prosecution powers against the incitement of racial violence.

Serbia's Independent Journalists' Association, NUNS, has accused the editor of a pro-government newspaper of stirring up hatred against neighbouring Croatia.

It said Dragan Vucicevic, the editor-in-chief of the daily Informer, should be held accountable for spreading hate speech on both his Twitter account and his newspaper.

Group calls for an end to hate speech on internet

A campaign to raise awareness about hate speech on the internet reaches 15 cities in BiH.

The internet is a powerful tool that allows unprecedented opportunities for communicating and sharing information with friends, acquaintances and complete strangers. But with that power comes the ability for abuse.

PRISTINA - Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo Jean-Claude Schlumberger and OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic opened in Pristina on Friday the regional conference on the ways to respond to instances of hate speech without violating the freedom of expression.

In its latest report on hate crimes, the Helsinki Committee reported 116 such incidents in 2013, and said the authorities often downplayed them as routine acts of violence.

Over 80 per cent of the hate attacks “involved ethnic Macedonians and Albanians”, the report noted.

Swiss Ambassador Jean-Daniel Ruch says a priority of the Swiss OSCE chairmanship are stronger ties with civil society and promotion of its active involvement.

CACAK - The Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sport has started a campaign and initiated the creation of a national committee for battling hate speech on the Internet, and the central event of this project, entitled Using Tolerance and Dialogue against Hate Speech, was held in Cacak, central Serbia, on Tuesday.