The candidates or electoral contenders will not be penalized for what they believe and say in the public sphere as long as what is stated does not violate the right of another person or a group of persons, Irina Korobchenko, hate speech monitoring and combating expert at Promo-LEX Association, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN.

The expert said that there shouldn’t be any concerns about the eventual violation of the freedom of expression. “There is a big difference between acid electoral speech, between contenders who shock sometimes, and hate speech used by an election contestant to urge other citizens, potential voters to violate the rights of another group only because that group is different. We speak namely about this type of speech and namely this type of speech should be penalized as the freedom of expression doesn’t cover speech that fuels, promotes the violation of the rights of other persons, no matter who these persons are and according to what protected criteria they can be identified,” stated Irina Korobchenko.

She expressed her confidence that the General Police Inspectorate, which is the ascertaining agent, is ready to make a difference between the freedom of expression and hate speech.

“Hate speech in the national legislation until 2022 could have been penalized only based on the Audiovisual Code by the Audiovisual Council, if this was generated by media service providers. The Council for Equality penalized the forms of expression that incited hatred through the angle of Law No. 121 on the instigation of discrimination. So, we didn’t have a clear provision in the legislation to prohibit and penalize hate speech, as it happens in this case,” said the expert of Promo-LEX.

Irina Korobchenko recommended the election contenders to refrain from speech that incites hatred, to immediately notify the responsible authorities if they become the target of such speech and to avoid hate speech in social media. If hate speech is followed by violent actions, one should call the 112 Emergency Service.

The public debate entitled “Hate speech prohibited and penalized, novelty at November 5 elections” was staged by IPN News Agency in the framework of the project “Stimulation of mass media discussion about traditional particularities of local elections and the need for Europeanization” which is supported by Soros Foundation Moldova.