New number 37 of Public Law Volumes

While the papers on hate speech on the Internet were being collected for this issue of Public Law Volumes, a showdown on social networks occurred. Diana Pelidija, a teacher in a Sarajevo Elementary School, found herself in the spotlight after Avaz daily released an article about a photo of her wearing šajkača, which she posted on her Facebook profile. The Internet portals spread the word very quickly, and soon afterward the media published the comments Dijana Pelidija wrote on her Facebook profile such as “Bosniaks being descendants of Serbs”, based on which Avaz journalist accused her of “spreading the idea of Great Serbia”. This triggered an avalanche of comments on social networks and portals that ranged from offensive, vulgar to hate speech and incitement to violence: she was called names such as “četnikuša” spreading “Serbian fascism”, “a četnik whore”; her national identity was discussed with lots of insults and curses, suggesting that “such a person should not be teaching children”, and that she should be fired from the job. In her defence, Pelidija tried to explain that both the FB statuses and comments were taken out of context, and that they represented her ironic reaction to social phenomena, and that they could not be understood unless viewed in the context in which they were written, but to no avail. On the contrary, the Minister of Education also came forward to announce that she would investigate “the case” and take action “if so permitted by law”, while the Minister of Labour and Social Policy concluded that Pelidija - if the FB posts were indeed hers - does not belong to schools. Read more...

(Veröffentlicht am 24. 10. 2019)