REM staff at the CE workshop on strengthening the regulatory framework on hate speech and harmful content

Staff of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media participated in the workshop Standards of the European Court of Human Rights on Hate Speech and Harmful Content, held in Vrdnik from 27-29 May and organised by the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade.
 
The three-day workshop provided insight into the standards of the European Court of Human Rights on hate speech and its connection to freedom of expression, as well as the challenges regulators face in regulating harmful content in the online environment.
 
Jelena Ristic, Council of Europe expert, informed the staff about the criteria for identifying hate speech, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and specific key cases that are crucial in the case law for identifying hate speech.
 
Bearing in mind that the digital environment provides potentially ideal conditions for the dissemination of content that can encourage hate speech, at the invitation of the Council of Europe, the representatives of the Irish regulatory authority, Alana Finn and Connor Stitt, also participated in the workshop. Since most of the major platforms are registered in Ireland, the staff had the opportunity to learn in detail about the regulatory framework applied in terms of safety in the online environment, as well as how to deal with illegal and harmful content.
 
This workshop was organised within the project Protection of Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom in Serbia (PROFREX), which is part of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkiye 2023-2026.