On the other hand, a study on hate speech in the media in Azerbaijani, Armenian
and Georgian in October 2014 concluded that 342 (3.9%) out of the 8679 Azerbaijani news items examined contained such statements. Hate speech was found in 8.8% of printed news items, 4.9% of electronic items and 2% of television programmes. Almost all of the 196 hate speech items dealing with ethnic conflicts were targeted at Armenians. Politicians and civil servants were the main disseminators of hate speech, followed by journalists. Journalists had often used posts from social networks, in particular Facebook, as their main source and had not systematically checked the information by using a second verified source. In this respect, ECRI recalls its recommendations made in the last report that the authorities avoid addressing issues of relevance to the Armenians in a negative light and that they impress on the media, without encroaching on their editorial independence, the need to ensure that reporting does not contribute to creating an atmosphere of hostility and rejection towards groups coming within ECRI’s terms of reference. With regard to the intensity of hate speech, the authors of the study only put one item into the first category used for hate speech of great intensity such as incitement to violence and discrimination, 337 in the second category on statements that create an atmosphere of intolerance and 25 in the third category for items that contribute to a negative image of a group of persons.
