Jews, Armenians top victims of hate speech, study says

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink Journalist Hrant Dink was killed on Jan 19, 2007, in central Istanbul. Hürriyet photo

According to a study by the Hrant Dink Foundation, Jews and Armenians are the communities most often subjected to hateful writing in the media with 25 percent of all cases, while Christians follow them at 18 percent. Based on news reports released within the last five months of 2012, the study evaluated the news that used ethnically or religiously discriminatory and racist expressions along with homophobic and gender-based hate speech.

The study showed that news including hate speech did not only target different religious or ethnic groups. Other groups singled out for attacks included homosexuals with 63 percent, transsexuals with 32 percent and women with 5 percent.

According to the study, Istanbul is the province where hate speech is the most common.

The rate of prevalence of hate speech and hostile expressions in news reports was 42 percent, while 27 percent of the news was manipulated or biased.

Among all the news on different Christian communities, the rate of hate speech occurence was 48 percent, while manipulation and exaggeration rate was 34 percent. The report includes the news and columns that used hate speech by referring to the papers and columnists by names. The clippings from papers were also added to the report.