Journalists and individuals who use the media for spreading hate speech and discrimination, should be legally accountable, while newsrooms should encourage journalists to adhere to professional work free of hate speech. Thereby, self-regulation should be used as a mechanism to react in cases of hate speech in the media. The competent institutions, such as, the Commission for Protection against Discrimination or the Public Prosecutor Office must demonstrate a proactive approach to the problem, while the cooperation between the Council of Ethics in the Media in Macedonia, the regulatory body and other stakeholders should be intensified in order dealing effectively with hate speech and discrimination in the media.

These are some of the recommendations of the round table on the role and impact of editors in preventing hate speech and discrimination in the media, organized by the Macedonian Institute for Media and the Council for Media Ethics and supported by the Delegation of the European Union. The event was attended by editors and journalists from the electronic, print and online media, representatives of civil society organizations, regulatory bodies, government institutions and international organizations.

The Head of Delegation of the EU, Aivo Orav emphasized the responsibility of journalists and the media always to offer balanced information based on facts. According to him, it is impossible to have an informed, active and engaged citizenry without freedom of expression and free journalism.

The President of the Complaints Commission of the Council of Media Ethics, Mirce Adamcevski emphasized the role and experience of the previous work of the self-regulatory body, in dealing with hate speech and discrimination in the media. Members of the Complaints Commission, Sefer Tahiri and Filip Gjurcinovski, focused on the key issues and challenges in combating the hate speech and discrimination in the media, the role of editors in the prevention of hate speech and the previous experiences.

The conclusions and recommendations of the roundtable will be the basis for preparation of an action plan for dealing with hate speech and discrimination in the media, which will be implemented in the following months.

This roundtable is part of the regional project "Media Observatory in Southeast Europe", financed by the European Union.