In the Hungarian Parliament, following bilateral negotiations in Budapest on 6 June 2016, Hungarian and Israeli Ministers of Justice László Trócsányi and Ayelet Shaked talked to journalists about the importance of combating hate speech and terrorism.
László Trócsányi stressed that although the governments of Hungary and Israel respect freedom of expression, they have to take action against hate speech.
Talking about the academic conference on the subject on Monday, he expressed his satisfaction that, in addition to representatives from the legal profession, the Media Authority and other experts also participated in the meeting.
“We live in a world characterised by the constant development of digital technology, which is almost faster than the development of justice. Therefore we need not only prevention, but also correction”, he added.
Mr. Trócsányi said that other topics discussed at the meeting were the migration crisis, its impact on Hungary, and Hungary filing of a legal appeal to the European Court of Justice against the decision on migrant quotas. The fact that the fight against terrorism is a priority in both countries was also brought up during the consultation.
Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked declared that they agree that an effective response to hate speech had to be found without restricting freedom of expression, “since we are aware that words of hatred may be followed by acts of hatred, and hatred should be stopped at the level of words”.
Ayelet Shaked pointed out that in recent months a wave of terrorism has swept Israel.
“It all started with online incitement of hatred, that is through words”, she explained, adding that when actions were taken to combat online hate speech, the number of terrorist acts apparently decreased.
“If there are no people who incite, if there are no words, then no acts will follow”, she stated.
The Israeli Minister of Justice noted that in Israel the Public Prosecutor’s Office launched proceedings against citizens engaged in inflammatory conduct every week, independent of them being Arabs or Jews.
(MTI)
