February 28, 2013 - 13:34 AMT
Armenians, Jews exposed to hate speech most in Turkish media

Jews and Armenians are exposed to hate speech more than any other group in Turkish media, says a report by Hrant Dink Foundation.

According to the Hurriyet Daily News, the report was conducted by scanning 16 newspapers by hand and searching for key words in the rest of the 1,000 national and local newspapers published between September and December 2012.

Jews and Armenians are used in hate speech the most, followed by Christians and Greeks living in Turkey. The category of “other” is composed of hate speech against LGBT people and women. Certain people and institutions are also exposed to hate crimes apart from ethnic, religious and national groups, the report said. Columns topped the list of media that used hate speech most frequently. Although the amount of hate speech targeting Kurdish people decreased in this period, the report contends it was a result of differentiating between “good Kurds” and “others in the media,” it said.

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is widely considered the same as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Group (PKK) and subsequently became a target of hate speech as well, the report added.

The top three dailies that included hate speech content are Yeni Akit, Milli Gazete and Yeni Mesaj, respectively.