After the murder of gdańsk mayor : EU Committee of the regions Resolution against incitement adopted News

With a memorial minute of the Committee of the regions (Cor) has thought at its plenary session in the last week of the murdered mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, in. Adamowicz was a member of the Committee, which acts as a representative body of the regions compared to the other institutions of the EU. The Committee members also adopted a Resolution to make on the dangers of incitement and hate crime to the attention of.

Adamowicz had been attacked in January during a charity event by a man on stage with a knife, he succumbed on the following day of his injuries. The attacker, a man with a mental disorder, called as a reason the former membership of the mayor in the party "civic platform". The offenders had served sentences for several Bank heists, prison, what he gave to the party the debt.

The murder Adamowiczs had started in Poland, a wide-ranging debate about hate speech and Media campaign, thousands of people demonstrated in the streets. Although the murder was committed by a mentally ill Person was perceived to be the incident by many as politically motivated. Over Adamowicz, who had been in the refugee issue clearly against the policies of the ruling PiS party, had been reported in the media is often negative. At the same time Adamowicz was not an isolated case. The political debate culture in Poland under the PiS government as aggressively, hate against politicians are not uncommon.

With its Resolution to want to send to the Committee of the regions a "clear Signal to the other EU institutions", said President of the Cor Karl-Heinz Lambertz. In the document, the Committee stresses its concern about the "rise of incitement and hate crime, as well as the coarsening of public discourse, the violence, extremism, Propaganda, and intolerance". The mayor and regional representatives to call for in the Resolution, the member States to invest more in the media education of their citizens, to raise awareness of the dangers of hate speech and an alarm system set up, with the risks of extremist-motivated violence can be reported.

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a flood of attacks on politicians of all storage

In the EU it came out in the last years, a growing number of attacks on politicians of all camps. Finally, the attack unleashed on the Bremen AfD-country Chairman Frank Magnitz in Germany, a fierce debate about extremism and the coarsening of political discourse. Social media, is it always played a special role, since they function as echo chambers, and some of the people could authorize this slightly radical.

The concern for the worsening political tone in Europe has also action recorded, the Brussels authorities are trying to counter hate speech and incitement. In 2016, the world's leading Internet signed platforms such as Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube to the EU code of conduct on fighting illegal hate speech, and undertook to evaluate messages, and to remove extremist content.

Positive balance of justice Commissioner Jourová

In the evaluation of this measure justice Commissioner, Vera Jourová came in last week to a positive balance: 89 percent of the reported content would be reviewed within 24 hours and 72 percent of those were deleted, she said. In Germany, where in October 2017, the so-called "network enforcement law" against hate speech on the Internet came into force, moves to a less successful conclusion. The law is considered ineffective, the reported hate speech will not removed, and criticize a lot.

doubt the effect of full control of social media

experts doubt that the harsh political discourse through the control of the social media to great effect to defuse. Dr. Hans Vorländer, Director of the center for constitutional democracy research, speaks of an "arousal spiral", the independent on Internet platforms and only a little of the opposite of the facts is disturbing. So would have changed the escalation level after the attack on Magnitz probably nothing would have been found, that the deed was not politically motivated, he explains in an Interview.

In Brussels, it is not still on a higher level of control and accountability of the social media, in order not only to political acts. The Resolution of the regional representatives are not likely to produce much more than a symbolic effect.

Published by EurActiv.

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