KSZD

HARASSMENT DETERMINED ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY ON INTERNET PORTALS

With the publication of the text “Sorry gay friends, it’s not about hormones, it’s about logic!”, the author of the text and the portals that published the text committed harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Acting on a complaint filed by the Coalition for Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities MARGINI and the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, the Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination determined harassment committed by the author of the text, Elizabeta Najdoska Velickova, as well as by Atanas Velickov, Aleksandra Trnkovska and Petar Kolev, registrants on the portals misli.mk, temite.mk and tribuna.mk, which published the text with disturbing content.

The complaint states that the text contains several parts that contain disturbing content based on sexual orientation and gender identity in terms of the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination.

In their statement regarding the complaint, the potential discriminators claim that according to the Law on Media, internet portals are not defined as a medium and therefore they do not have legal treatment of media and cannot be a relevant source of information. They also allege that the author of the text exercised her right to express her personal opinion.

The CPPD does not act in accordance with the Law on Media, but in accordance with the Law on Prevention and Protection from Discrimination, which has a wider application. Pursuant to this Law, the Commission has the opportunity to act upon complaints for protection against discriminatory and harassing content on Internet portals, despite the fact that they do not have the status of media in accordance with the Law on Media.

The discriminatory speech in the text goes beyond the limits of freedom of expression and encroaches on the violation of the rights of other persons. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights also points in that direction, which in the case Veejdelend and others v. Sweden, complaint no.1813/07, decides that such speech should be sanctioned. The court concludes that sanctioning such speech, recognizing it as harassment that creates a threatening, humiliating and hostile environment is necessary in a democratic society, in order to protect the rights and dignity of others.

The author of the text is advised to apologize for the written text “Sorry gay friends, it’s not about hormones, it’s about logic!” and the apology should be published on the portals tribuna.mk, temite.mk and misli.mk, which published the disturbing text. At the same time, the author is advised in the future to refrain from writing texts that contain disturbing content based on sexual orientation and gender identity or any other discriminatory grounds.

The registrants and proofreaders of the portals tribuna.mk, misli.mk and temite.mk are instructed to publish the public apology of the author of the text and to publish their public apology on their portals and Facebook pages. They are also advised to refrain from publishing texts in the future that contain disturbing content based on sexual orientation and gender identity or any other discriminatory grounds.

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