Hate Speech, Assault, intimidation: According to a PEN study of German writers in fear of the freedom of expression. But you don’t want to keep going.
526 writers have participated in the survey, three-quarters of them are worried about the freedom of expression in Germany.
Most of the attacks took place, according to the study of the German PEN-center and the Institute for media research at the University of Rostock in the Internet. Every second of the respondents have experienced Assault or knows a colleague or a colleague, threatened, intimidated or hateful reactions was confronted. 37 percent of which were made in the network of anonymous users, 31 percent personally. The Social media will see more than half of the respondents as the cause for the threat to artistic and literary freedom. This has also led to the fact that some have set their entries.
Social media as a source of danger
“These are shocking results, one would not have suspected for a liberal-democratically composed society,” said Carlos Collado Seidel, General Secretary of the PEN centre of Germany in a communication. “Not only is it obvious that the freedom of speech and tolerance towards the opinions of others, the highest goods of our order, under pressure. Another process of Erosion threatens pluralism and diversity of opinion and, therefore, the core of our society.”
Many authors are being attacked on Facebook
The Online attacks take place in Facebook or as a comment under articles in the Internet. As the reason for this hostility is the author see authors reservations about the political orientation, dissatisfaction with the representation of material behavior, Aversion to groups of people that have been reported, or reservations against Religion and belief, as well as reservations on the basis of sex.
“The alarm signal must be taken seriously”
“With this study, we have taken obviously a nerve,” says Professor Elizabeth Prommer, Director of the Institute for media research at the University of Rostock. “We were completely surprised by the high level of participation and, above all, on the extraordinary personal communication needs. The topic of writers is strong. This alarm signal must be taken seriously.“
Despite these attacks, the least of the respondents can be intimidated. More than half of all respondents who have experienced attacks, to position itself even more self-confident than previously with their work.