ID :
160470
Sat, 02/12/2011 - 10:00
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Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/160470
The shortlink copeid
President Medvedev asks media to be careful in choosing vocabulary
UFA, February 12 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has urged the mass media to be more scrupulous in selecting the terms they use, and not to call black things white.
"The role of the mass media in maintaining interethnic unity is huge,"he said at a meeting of the State Council Presidium on Friday. As an example he cited the term "hate speech".
"Unfortunately, hate speech has made its way into the media," he said. "Some of the media use the language of hatred, maybe not even paying special attention to it - because no one wants to destroy one's own country, of course - so they may be doing so without stopping to think how it hurts people who belong to a particular ethnic group."
"Generally speaking, far more attention must be paid to the language," Medvedev said. "I sometimes watch our programs (on TV), and periodically I hear there some terms that are fundamentally unacceptable, and sometimes there are even definitions quite alien to our ethnic and territorial division, administrative-territorial division. Quite often there are used cliches and terms from the vocabulary of the separatists and extremists," the president said. He mentioned some quotes from a newscast: "Today there has been detained the Emir of this or that Jamaat-something."
"What sort of thing is that Emir? What sort of jamaat are they talking about? We all know that they are not fighters for the faith, but killers and gangsters. They have no jamaats, they just have their dirty and stinky caves where they hide. They are not emirs of any kind, but monsters who kill children and women. Yet this is repeated again and again," said angry Medvedev.
In his opinion, such definitions are remembered at the "subconscious level."
"Therefore, we must certainly pay attention to the terminology. One cannot call black things white. There are laws of propaganda, which ultimately, at the subconscious level, begin to work against us," said the president.
Medvedev also touched upon the issue of legal liability for the
violations related to the instigation of ethnic and religious strife. He did not rule out tighter responsibility for such actions. However,
according to his estimates, the problem is largely about how prosecutors, the investigation and the judge understand the sanctions. "If such crimes are regarded as serious, then the punishment for them must be serious. And if it is seen as a trifle, for instance, the man wrote something on the Internet, who cares, he has not killed anyone after all - then a suspended sentence will do," Medvedev said.
However, he believes that quite "often this kind of activity creates grounds for enormous conflicts, including the most grave and sometimes bloody conflicts." "Qualification is a matter of investigation and trial.
But I would like to draw the attention of the colleagues who supervise
legality in this area, to the fact that these crimes may provide a basis for other ones, of special gravity. And this is what we musts proceed from in making decisions on the qualification of responsibility," said Medvedev.
"The role of the mass media in maintaining interethnic unity is huge,"he said at a meeting of the State Council Presidium on Friday. As an example he cited the term "hate speech".
"Unfortunately, hate speech has made its way into the media," he said. "Some of the media use the language of hatred, maybe not even paying special attention to it - because no one wants to destroy one's own country, of course - so they may be doing so without stopping to think how it hurts people who belong to a particular ethnic group."
"Generally speaking, far more attention must be paid to the language," Medvedev said. "I sometimes watch our programs (on TV), and periodically I hear there some terms that are fundamentally unacceptable, and sometimes there are even definitions quite alien to our ethnic and territorial division, administrative-territorial division. Quite often there are used cliches and terms from the vocabulary of the separatists and extremists," the president said. He mentioned some quotes from a newscast: "Today there has been detained the Emir of this or that Jamaat-something."
"What sort of thing is that Emir? What sort of jamaat are they talking about? We all know that they are not fighters for the faith, but killers and gangsters. They have no jamaats, they just have their dirty and stinky caves where they hide. They are not emirs of any kind, but monsters who kill children and women. Yet this is repeated again and again," said angry Medvedev.
In his opinion, such definitions are remembered at the "subconscious level."
"Therefore, we must certainly pay attention to the terminology. One cannot call black things white. There are laws of propaganda, which ultimately, at the subconscious level, begin to work against us," said the president.
Medvedev also touched upon the issue of legal liability for the
violations related to the instigation of ethnic and religious strife. He did not rule out tighter responsibility for such actions. However,
according to his estimates, the problem is largely about how prosecutors, the investigation and the judge understand the sanctions. "If such crimes are regarded as serious, then the punishment for them must be serious. And if it is seen as a trifle, for instance, the man wrote something on the Internet, who cares, he has not killed anyone after all - then a suspended sentence will do," Medvedev said.
However, he believes that quite "often this kind of activity creates grounds for enormous conflicts, including the most grave and sometimes bloody conflicts." "Qualification is a matter of investigation and trial.
But I would like to draw the attention of the colleagues who supervise
legality in this area, to the fact that these crimes may provide a basis for other ones, of special gravity. And this is what we musts proceed from in making decisions on the qualification of responsibility," said Medvedev.
