A three- day regional conference was held in Tirana having as main agenda the prevention of hate speech among the people of the Western Balkans.
Over 40 high-level guests, more than 300 in person participants and hundreds online, divided into seven panels, came up with a series of legal and practical proposals to help prevent hate speech at the regional level.
Socialist deputy Blerina Gjylameti, as a representative of the Albanian Parliament, stressed in her opening remarks in the conference, organized by the Western Balkan Fund (March 1-3, 2022), that hate speech is the primary cause for conflicts that have occurred in the past in the Balkans and what is currently happening in Ukraine.
“We, as Balkans, have witnessed how democracy is endangered by authoritarian leaders and ideas of past centuries of expanding territory at the expense of neighbors. What is happening in Ukraine should serve as an alarm bell for our societies that democracy is never static,” she said.
In his contribution in the conference, which was financially supported by the Embassy of Japan in Tirana and the Visegrad Fund, the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj stressed that hate speech is unacceptable in the European capital of youth and provided personal examples of how to fight against slander and hatred. /Argumentum.al
