More than 100 Instances of Hate Speech in Media in 18 Months

Newspapers front pages (Photo: Beta / Nenad Petrovic)

The Media Diversity Institute – Western Balkans has announced that 102 instances of hate speech were registered between January 2024 and July 2025.

According to the organization’s announcement, the results of the monitoring they have carried out show that the main source of hate speech was the media (41.5 percent) and politicians and public officials (21.5 percent).

“The political crisis in the country that followed the collapse of the concrete overhang in Novi Sad has shaped the results of the hate speech monitoring in the media. In this atmosphere, the common harmful narratives and hate speech, especially targeting women and ethnic groups, have been used as political weapons against the students, demonstrators, the opposition, the civil society and ordinary citizens who participated in the blockades and protests,” it was declared in the announcement.

The organization further stated that the language the media used when targeting political opponents was more invasive than before. “The usual labeling, such as traitor and foreign agent, is now often replaced with terrorist, fascist or Nazi,” the Institute stated.