The Responsibility Of Media For Hate Speech-the New Application Of Crimes Against Humanity In ICTR

Freedom of speech,as one of the basic civil rights,is also an extremely important character and value of democratic society.When media enjoys the right of freedom of speech,it may also infringe the rights of other people.Such as hate speech,incite discrimination and violence,may aggravate the mutual hatred and violence between groups under certain social backgrounds.Media as the leader of public opinion,it is often easier to incite public sentiment.As a result,the media's right to freedom of speech is attached with an obligation that is more severe and more rigorous than the individual.The cases of serious social harm caused by the media's propaganda hate speech are not infrequent.During World War II,for example,the German Nazi Party used the Nazi propaganda organization to infiltrate the Nazi ideology throughout the country,resulting in the spread of anti-Semitism.And in the 1994 Rwandan genocide,the head of radio,newspapers,deliberately incited racial hatred,propagandized racial antagonism,within a short time rapidly intensified the outbreak of the Holocaust.International law protect the right of freedom of expression,but not protect the hatred speech acts.The international criminal law prescribes the crime of genocide,crimes against humanity,war crimes and other legal sanctions on the hate speech.Crime against humanity is to blame the serious infringement to the legitimate rights and interests of the entire human being caused by hatred speech.In the international judicial practice,the International Military Tribunal(IMT)firstly prescribed this acts by judgment,and then Subsequent trial of the United States Military Court developed the application of crimes against humanity.In December 3,2003,ICTR made a guilty verdict of three media officers who incited racial hatred in the Rwandan genocide.This is the first time that the International Court of justice made judgement for the media practitioners since World War II.The judgment of ICTR is influenced by the spirit of IMT and the idea of enjoy fundamental human rights without discrimination.So this judgment has significant meaning on the development of crimes against humanity,presenting some originality.It has promoted the perfection of the international criminal legal system of the hate speech cases.The first part of the thesis starts with the basic concepts of hate speech and freedom of speech,defining the extension of the concept of hatred speech.After comparing the existing restrictions on hate speech in different countries,it shows that the international community and most countries take the attitude of the restrictions on hate speech.The second part introduces the relevant facts of the media case judged by ICTR,supporting the reasonableness of the attitude of the restrictions on media case,and elaborates the reasons and reasoning of the prosecution charges.The third part analyzes the reasons and reasoning process of the International Criminal Court,including extermination,persecution and murder.In the specific charges,this part summarizes the specific behavior of the three defendants and the constitutive elements of crimes.The fourth part at first makes a brief analysis of the media case of IMT,then combines with the previous content,to make a comparison with IMT's and ICTR's judgments on the application of crimes against humanity,thus elaborating the influence of two cases on media's responsibilities in the international law.