“Hate speech is actually happening in the Balkans. The countries in the region are more fragile to fake news and hate speech, and they affect our society and make our democracy more fragile. You can see how human rights are being put aside.” said Mersiha Smailovich from “Legis”, at Conference: Attacks on democracy and human rights: Civil society organizations in support of Western Balkans societies facing disinformation, hate speech and hybrid attacks, organized by CIVIL in cooperation with Balkan Forum and members of the Civil Society Platform for Democracy and Human Rights (CSP).
She mentioned an interesting moment of the refugee issue.
“Two camps were made on our land, on the border with Greece and with Serbia, and that was in 2015. We changed the law that was more in favor of human rights. But then in 2017, when the government was in opposition they started spreading fake news about the refugees and camps, and so a massive propaganda against the refugees and migrants started. So after the local election in 2017 everything went downhill, and even now it’s very hard to raise empathy for the migrants.”, mentioned Smailovic.
“Attacks on me are based on several factors: my gender, my ethnicity, my religion. You are scared to go outside because so many people are attacking you. I would like to say do not go to the public prosecutor’s office because it is very disturbing. At the end of my interview she was attacking me, even though I was the victim. She said leave social media behind, take care of your home, your kids. Nothing happens, the institutions are very silent when we speak about hate speech and discrimination.” noted Mersiha Smailovic on Wednesday (7.28.2021), Skopje.
