The issue of so called hate speech in the context of freedom of speech Abstract This thesis titled The issue of so-called hate speech in the context of freedom of speech deals with the legal regulation of hate speech at the international and national level. The thesis contains a comprehensive analysis of legal instruments regulating hate speech in civil, anti-discrimination, administrative and criminal law. This thesis combines the theoretical basis of hate speech regulation with practical knowledge about the applicability of individual legal norms and is supplemented by relevant case law of the Czech courts and the European Court of Human Rights. The aim of this work is to describe the phenomenon of hate speech, provide an analysis of legal instruments regulating hate speech and also to analyse legal arguments for hate speech regulation. The thesis attempts to find the boundary between protected speech and speech that is unprotected by the international and constitutional framework of freedom of speech protection, by means of an analysis of individual court decisions. The thesis also contains a critical reflection of the current legal framework of hate speech regulation and suggests possible variants of legislative changes in the future. The thesis is structured into five chapters. The first part...

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur unga med judisk tillhörighet upplever antisemitism på mikro- och makronivå för att uppnå en bättre förståelse för hur dagens antisemitism i Sverige påverkar individer med judisk religiös tillhörighet utifrån deras egna känslor kring ämnet. Det har använts semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fem respondenter från Sveriges storstäder. Det transkriberade materialet har därefter analyserats utifrån kvalitativ innehållsanalys och kategoriserats samt tematiserats utifrån uttalade upplevelser och känslor av upplevelserna. Resultaten visade att respondenterna upplever en ökning i antisemitism. De menar också att det bör genomföras åtgärder för att öka kunskap om antisemitism i skolan samt att få ett större fokus på ämnet inom polismyndigheten. Arbete mot en större anmälningsbenägenhet bör också prioriteras enligt respondenterna. / The purpose of this study was to research how youth with Jewish affiliation experience antisemitism on both micro- and macro level, this to gain a greater understanding of how antisemitism affects religious jewish individuals based on their own feelings towards the subject. Semistructured qualitative interviews have been used for five respondents from the largest cities in Sweden. Afterwards, the transcribed material was analyzed with qualitative content analysis, and categorized and thematised based on expressed experiences and feelings towards the experiences. The results show that respondents feel an increase of antisemitism. They also believe that actions such as increase of knowlegde about antisemitism in schools and a greater focus on the subject at the police should be done. According to the respondents, work towards more people reporting to the police should be prioritized.

Although the Nordic countries have consistently ranked at the top of the Press Freedom Index for the last decade they aren’t a monolith, untouched by the rise of populism, authoritarianism and its frequent attacks on the press; a scourge of democratic nations during the last vestiges of the 2010s. Nor have their media managed to escape the rocky seas of finding viable market solutions in an increasingly accelerating and expanding digital reality.  Intimidation and harassment, heavy workloads and job insecurity are tangible threats for journalists. The aim of this study was to examine to which extent these factors are sources of stress, vulnerability and feelings of insecurity for some Swedish journalists working in the field and within editorial environs today. A qualitative approach of in-depth interviews with a few active journalists, editorial department safety representatives as well as union representatives comprise the main, albeit small, chunk of this paper’s empirical data. The results were then analysed and compared to prior research including but not limited to; Threats towards journalists, public trust and views of Swedish media, the labour market, economic prospects of Swedish media and the technical requirements and workloads of today’s journalists in Sweden.  The results showed that although threats and intimidation tactics towards journalists were commonplace – and risks stifling media discourse – it was not the main cause of the interviewed journalists’ perception of insecurity; mainly due to its intermittency and subject-related predictability. Heavy workloads were instead put forth as a major component of everyday stress, this was in part explained by personnel downsizing without corresponding reductions in production as well as a trend towards less niche multi-role journalists. Job insecurity and employer sided exploitation of employment laws were also cited as main sources of discontent and stress, leading to a high degree of job vulnerability and diminishing work satisfaction.  Although the scope of this paper did not allow for a large sample size the findings still gives an interesting insight into the real working environment of some Swedish journalists.

Hate Crimes Abstract The author of this thesis discusses the issue of hate crimes according to the Act No. 40/2009 Coll., The Criminal Code, as amended, and related case law. The thesis is divided into several parts. The first part is devoted to the definition of hate crime and related terms such as extremism, prejudice, race, anti-Semitism, nationalism and xenophobia. These concepts are important for the following interpretation and for the understanding of the existence of special protection in the context of hate crimes. The second part is devoted to the international regulation of hate crimes. Emphasis is places on the analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The third and fundamental part of this master thesis analyzes hate crimes in the Czech Republic in the context of settled and current case law. In addition, examples of statements fulfilling the facts of individual crimes from practice are given. The fourth part analyzes the basic issues of hate speech and hate crimes in the United States legislation and case law. It also includes comparison of individual approaches with ideas of possible inspiration. The fifth part is devoted to reflections de lege ferenda on the topic, especially with regard to different concepts in the Czech Republic and the United States. The last part...

This essay explores the phenomenological features of the passional response to evil that Aquinas calls 'hatred of sin' in Summa Thelogiae II-II Q34 A3 and I-II Q23 A1, among other places. Social justice concerns and philosophical objections, however, challenge the notion that one can feel hatred toward an agent's vice or sin without it being the agent who is hated. I argue that a careful, contextual reading of these texts shows that Aquinas cannot be read as commending 'hate' in any form. The texts under consideration offer no comfort to those who appeal to hatred of sin or vice to legitimate sentiments or actions that can be reasonably taken to express hatred of persons.

This essay explores the phenomenological features of the passional response to evil that Aquinas calls 'hatred of sin' in Summa Thelogiae II-II Q34 A3 and I-II Q23 A1, among other places. Social justice concerns and philosophical objections, however, challenge the notion that one can feel hatred toward an agent's vice or sin without it being the agent who is hated. I argue that a careful, contextual reading of these texts shows that Aquinas cannot be read as commending 'hate' in any form. The texts under consideration offer no comfort to those who appeal to hatred of sin or vice to legitimate sentiments or actions that can be reasonably taken to express hatred of persons.

Spinoza rejects ‘turning the other cheek’ where humans live in civic community, and denies that piety ever requires it under those circumstances. Yet he argues that Jeremiah and Jesus counsel it under the exceptional circumstances where civic community collapses, and one is exposed to oppression. Spinoza defends his view by appealing to the love command—one must love one’s neighbor as one loves oneself. This chapter shows how turning the other cheek when one cannot count on others to do likewise can be rational on Spinoza’s terms and how he resolves the apparent tension of his claim that one must not turn the other cheek when one lives under the rule of civil law with his claims that hatred is always bad, and that anyone who ‘lives by the guidance of reason’ endeavors to ‘repay another’s hatred with love or nobility’.

In this essay I am going to discuss the different forms of discrimination and disadvantages of immigrant employees in the Swedish labor market. By using policy analysis, the purpose is to study the policies that contain the guidelines of which discrimination laws and other directives about discrimination are presented. This work is going to study how discrimination and racism occur in the Swedish labor market and how the government counter the disadvantages by acting in the policies they have established. The results show that immigrant and foreign groups in the labor market have disadvantages because of the discriminatory structure that display the employers’ underestimation of these groups by acting on the prejudices and discriminations that these groups are affected by. Problems like ethnic occupational segregation, ethnic hierarchies, hate crime and mainly ethnic discrimination are all independent factors that leads to the disadvantages displayed on the immigrant groups in the Swedish labor market. Salaries and level of education are also determining how far one employee can succeed and be compared with the respective native Swedish employee. The conclusion is, based on the discriminations policies and guidelines, that immigrant groups of Sweden are having a lower salary and definitely not gaining same amount of salary despite the same education and qualifications attained. Worst case is for the black Swedes which have the lowest income compared to other immigrants and mostly to native Swedes. By the help of the government would the qualitative differences between these groups be less defined because of the government influence in form of multicultural projects and activities, which allow immigrants to be established firmly into the Swedish society and hopefully into the labor market

The purpose of this study is to examine incels expressions of hate on a Swedish online forum. The term incel means involuntary celibacy and has come to attract mainly heterosexual men who have difficulty succeeding in romantic and sexual relationships. Furthermore, the incel community is characterized by misogyny and incitements to violence. The phenomenon, established on the internet, has in recent years grown and attracted more and more people. Previous studies show that Sweden might obtain the most incels in the world relative to the population. To acquire knowledge about the phenomenon, we intended to investigate how Swedish incels express hate, what the hate is directed to and to what purpose. The study was conducted using a netnographic method where posts on the Swedish forum Flashback were collected. The data was analyzed and sorted using a qualitative analysis of data which resulted in four categories of hatred; misogyny, hatred against the Swedish welfare society, xenophobia and self-hatred. Erving Goffman's theory of stigma and Raewyn Connell's theory of masculinity were used as a theoretical framework, and based on these theories, the main results show that incels hatred is based on the lack of sexual relationships which lead to crisis tendencies and perceived stigma. Hatred can be understood as frustration, the feeling of exclusion and a feeling of inadequacy as well as the experience of a threatened masculinity. The hatred amongst Swedish incels also function as a binding force in the incel community.

This thesis examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on racist and xenophobic hate crimes. I argue that perceived threat and strain generated by the pandemic trigger negative emotions such as fear, frustration and anger. These negative emotions are directed to the group that is blamed in public discourse for the cause and/or spread of the Coronavirus. As a result, I argue that these hostile attitudes are expressed through racist and xenophobic hate crimes. Drawing on this proposed causal mechanism, the hypothesis the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in the number of racist and xenophobic hate crimes is developed. The hypothesis is tested by examining a period of 11 months before and 11 months during the pandemic by conducting an Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ITSA). The results show that the hate crime trend changed from a small decreasing trend before the pandemic to a less decreasing trend during the pandemic, yet the results are not significant. Thus, the results do not support the hypothesis. Concerns regarding the sample selection and theoretical limitations are expressedand open up avenues for future research.