A paper on MeCoDEM’s key concept “hate speech” is now available! It is authored by Charlotte Elliott, Wallace Chuma, Yosra El Gendi, Davor Marko and Alisha Patel.

Download at: www.mecodem.eu/publications/working-papers/

Executive Summary
The paper explores the concept of hate speech, both theoretically and within the context of the MeCoDEM project’s four country case studies: Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa. Instead of seeking to provide an objective definition of hate speech, the paper’s empirical approach highlights that context matters. More specifically, analysis of the political and socio-economic context in which the speech act occurs and consideration of the nature of the speaker and audience – including their impact and transmission – allows for a nuanced and informed approach to evaluate hate speech, and how this impacts democratisation processes.

The paper presents:

• A general discussion of freedom of speech and its relationship with hate speech;
• A brief discussion on the definitions of hate speech and international legislation;
• A short discussion of hate speech in the four country contexts of the MeCoDEM project: Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa.