Hate Speech, Terrorism & Mass Killings

Introduction & Scope This guidance addresses three separate but related phenomena – racist, discriminatory and hate speech; terror attacks; and non-political mass killings. Hate Speech, Prejudice and other Offensive Content Introduction Analysing terror or mass killing events or ideas and attitudes that are potentially discriminatory presents a different range of issues to the reporting of terror incidents and mass killings in news. The editorial policies state that the ABC should “Avoid the unjustified use of stereotypes or discriminatory content that could reasonably be interpreted as condoning or encouraging prejudice.” The policies also state that the ABC should “Present a diversity of perspectives so that, over time, no significant strand of thought or belief within the community is knowingly excluded or disproportionately represented.” Electoral success does confer some legitimacy in a democracy – it is hard to argue that support sufficient to elect politicians to federal parliament does not represent a ‘significant perspective in the community’. Advice on Reporting Hate Speech Before publishing or broadcasting hate speech and other discriminatory content consider: What editorial purpose or justification is served by reporting these statements? Advice on Hate Speech in Non-Live Content Before including discriminatory or offensive content in non-live content consider: Is there a sufficient editorial justification for inclusion of the comments?