“Hate speech during the election campaign of the 2020 parlamentary elections on the behavior of citizens in intergroup relations” was the book that today was promoted in the University of Tetova.
This book comes because of the research project from the Center for Peace and Transcultural Communication that operates within the UT. In addition, the book aims to explain the atmosphere created during the election campaign that set a new precedent in the field of communication, while researchers have analyzed the phenomenon and the presence of intergroup hate speech.
Head of the Center for Peace and Transcultural Communication within the University of Tetova, Mr. Sc. Donika Kamberi emphasized that the book that was promoted today, “Hate speech during the election campaign in the Republic of North Macedonia: the effects on the behavior of citizens in intergroup relations” is the result of a lot of work for almost a year and a half. “The idea came from a group of researchers at the University of Tetova. Initially it started as a research project, and then this project was shaped through the Center for Peace and Transcultural Communication, that I lead. The topic that this book has touched on has to do exclusively with hate speech, but researchers, who are from the social sciences and humanities have given it different approaches, have analyzed it philosophically, linguistically, legally through legal optics. The working group that dealt with the project was a very large group. They are divided into the group of transcribers, i.e. those who have transcribed every public appearance, whether of opposition leaders or those of the position from both camps: Macedonian and Albanian, and the group of scholars who have taken this empirical data and inserted it into their works despite the approaches they have followed “- said the director of the Center for Peace and Transcultural Communication within the University of Tetova, Mr. Sc. Donika Kamberi.
The reviewer of this book, Prof. Dr. Lulzim Murtezani, stated that the hate speech is more than evident. The promotion of this book is in the function of sensitizing the citizens, sensitizing the societies and policy makers regarding the importance of the restriction, orienting the citizens regarding the possibility of spreading hate speech. “In this book are included exactly many direct studies, which reflect the moments that marked the parliamentary campaign of the twenties: how was the mentality in general, what were the perceptions of citizens regarding hate speech, which unfortunately they all strain us. The message is related to the way actors exercise politics, how other actors in society should be careful and take measures to democratize society and control the way they express themselves, people’s feelings and especially those based on insults in ethnic, religious, cultural plan and so on”,-said Prof. Dr. Lulzim Murtezani.
The two university professors, Prof. also spoke about the book in question. Dr. Auroroa Ndrio Karameti and Prof. Dr. Zylyftar Bregu. He praised the book as a good, luxurious publication, which is published in a very useful context because we are in an election campaign and the book talks about hate speech in the election campaign. “I wish it would get into the hands of politicians and journalists as soon as possible, to amortize, reduce the effects and use of hate speech. The book is a contribution that shows that the University of Tetova produces knowledge, it is not only that it emits the knowledge that others have produced but it produces its own knowledge, it produces knowledge coming out of its own society, for its own society”, – said Prof.Dr. Zylyftar Bregu.
The initiator of the project, Doc. Dr. Sheruze Osmani-Ballazhi, said that this project would not be implemented without the tireless work of her colleagues, who for months have been committed to realize this idea. “The idea for such a project emerged because of the need to clarify the phenomenon of alienation of individuals during election campaigns in terms of underestimation, insult, labeling each other but also categorization into certain camps with or without the will of individuals themselves. We also return to a 10-year retrospective, let’s not go even further, during the realization of the election cycles, what has characterized Macedonia have been the incidents either on the day of the elections, there were also victims, or for the last 10 years, after every election cycle we had different incidents, which of course were on ethnic grounds. The other need we saw in terms of hate speech is the lack or limited resources of scientific research in our country who have dealt with hate speech. The focus of this book is the use of ate speech during the election campaign of the 2020 parlamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia “, -said the initiator of the project Doc.Dr. Sheruze Osmani Ballazhi.
This event was concluded in the form of a conversation between the panelists and those present, with the hope that such events will not be absent in the future.
