Before you try to find out who should be responsible for the catastrophe of Chile Hebdo Massacre, I humbly ask you could consider the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R (97) 20 (hereinafter R97) and the EU Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on Combating Certain Forms and Expressions of Racism and Xenophobia by Means of Criminal Law.
According to the R97, its preambular elucidates the term of hate speech "shall be understood as covering all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of hatred based on intolerance, including: intolerance expressed by aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, discrimination and hostility against minorities, migrants and people of immigrant origin."
Even if the religious factor is not clearly considered by the above catalog, the “Spirit of Islam” in some sense shall be acknowledged it has the essence of “minority” when in comparison with the main religion in Europe. Meantime, the Principle 6 and 7 advise the media’s and its professional’s responsibilities when “contributing to their dissemination as part of their mission to communicate information and ideas on matters of public interest.”
Although the media reports on racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of intolerance although is fully protected by Article 10(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, it may only be interfered with under the conditions set out in paragraph 2 of that provision. Also, the national authorities shall consider the restriction for the freedom of expression whether or not in accordance with the criteria established by the case law of the Convention's organs, inter alia, to the “manner, content, context and purpose of the reporting.”
Unlike news or report, satirical cartoons may reveal the feeling of the editor after he/ she observes the current events among the world. Yet, it may not be considered that satirical cartoons enjoy the looser standard of hate speech than news or report. Satirical cartoons may make fun for its readers, but in some sense could be assault or disrespect to what these cartoons indicate.
