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On Thursday, during the Seimas Commission for the Prevention of Suicide and Violence discussion on hate speech, Justice Minister Evelina Dobrovolska announced that she had prepared relevant amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Offenses Codes.
“It is proposed to transfer harassment and contempt to the Code of Administrative Offenses. In this case, the problem of danger is likely to be easier to identify. Of course, direct incitement to hatred and incitement to discriminate against a group of people it remains in the Penal Code ”, said the Minister.
The Penal Code now provides that anyone who mocks, despises, incites hatred or publicly incites discrimination against a group of people or a person belonging to it on grounds of age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, race, nationality , language, origin, social condition, religion, belief or punishment with a fine or restriction of freedom, or arrest or imprisonment of up to two years.
The Minister of Justice proposes to eliminate the words “mockery and contempt” from the CC article and create a new article “Mockery and contempt for nationality, race, gender, origin, religion or other group affiliation” in the Administrative Code of Crimes. What the fines might be has yet to be decided.
He outlined the guidelines for where there is hate speech and where it can be criticized.
In the debate, Seimas member Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius gave an example of what could be considered hate speech.
“I remember a comment when representatives of a social group were urged to plant nettles. The entire carousel of courts was misrepresented when the lower courts applied criminal liability in this context.
The Supreme Court has said that this is not a measure of last reason; It seems to me that the use of additional measures such as administrative liability could also give more freedom to assess the context in which the comment is made.
The sentence itself may not reveal the whole picture, but the context is also important: where it is expressed, after what and finally, what goal is pursued when it is expressed, ”said TV Raskevičius.
The Minister of Justice, E. Dobrovolska, stated that he did not want to give specific examples of hate speech so as not to spread the language of hate further. But he outlined the guidelines: where is hate speech possible and where only criticism.
“By repeating hate speech, we are probably spreading it; this should be avoided. But by reassuring and explaining, criticism as such is not prohibited and it is one of the parts of free speech that is clearly the dividing line between speech of hate.
Continuing to criticize my tattoos is fine, it is possible and has nothing to do with administrative and criminal responsibility.
But when we are already talking about the signs of belonging of a person – based on nationality, sexual orientation, gender and, in that case, incitement to hatred or contempt – as an example, it is suggested to destroy or physically treat a certain group, obviously it’s hate, language.
It seems to me that sometimes we try to get involved in discussions that supposedly require special knowledge, but if we look at those comments cited in articles and jurisprudence, for none of us it is around 90%. there would be no question whether it is hate speech or not, ”said Minister E. Dobrovolska.
Administrative responsibility is also responsible for inciting hatred on the Internet
The Minister of Justice, who participated in the debate, stated that the public and law enforcement response to hate speech should be based on the principle of inevitability of punishment. Amendments to the law prepared by the Minister of Justice will be considered in the spring session of the Seimas.
“Enforcing administrative responsibility for hate speech would give law enforcement authorities more flexibility to investigate and decide on hate speech and hate speech.” Criminal responsibility should always be a last resort, but we must agree that hatred is not a value in our society, “said Dobrovolska.
The Minister noted that amendments to the law are already being prepared, which could be prosecuted for incitement to hatred. They have not yet registered and may be subject to change in light of comments.
“Although Lithuanian law provides for criminal liability for hate speech, it is not clear where the dividing line should be drawn between freedom of expression and crime.
For this reason, new opportunities and forms of cooperation should be discussed to not only respond effectively to the invisible phenomenon of hate speech, but also to increase public awareness about the various forms of intolerance and discrimination, ”said Andrius Navickas, President of the Suicide and Violence Commission of the Seimas.
Police representative: officers are the first to respond to hate reports
Aušra Sadauskienė, Chief Investigator of the Pre-Trial Investigation Coordination and Control Division of the Operational Control and Coordination Board of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Office, spoke about the involvement of police officers in the investigation of cases of incitement to hatred.
“Officials are the first to respond to hate speech. {…} Since they are the first to respond to such messages, it is their greatest responsibility.
During the pandemic, there is an increase in complaints related to hate speech. They are getting significantly more than last year. It is not possible to reflect all these data in the statistics.
During 2020, 50 criminal offenses would be registered. It cannot be said that only so many messages have been received. Pre-trial investigations are initiated more than crimes are recorded, ”said A. Sadauskienė.
New police posts are being created – cybernetic patrols
According to the investigator from the Lithuanian Criminal Police Office, new police posts are currently being created that will monitor possible criminal acts on the Internet.
“It just came to our knowledge then cybernetic patrols (virtual patrols). This is something new and new posts.
Online spaces are associated with the appearance of these positions supervision (monitoring) to prevent the problem of hate speech in the online space. As well as other possible criminal activities.
Because this is something completely new, I still can’t say more about how things will go, “said A. Sadauskienė.
According to data from the Department of Informatics and Communications of the Ministry of the Interior, in 2016-2020 there were 163 cases of hate speech in Lithuania.
On the other hand, data from NGOs and monitoring of public space clearly show that incitement to hatred is characterized by “latency”, that is, by not informing the authorities.
According to the participants in the discussion, this trend is partly determined by public indifference and insufficient response from law enforcement and state institutions.
It is observed that during a pandemic, as society faces psychological and emotional health challenges, hate speech in cyberspace becomes even more visible.
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