“This case is not just about ethical media.
It is also about the societal attitudes and behaviours that are fostered by degrading, sexist language against women.
It is neither funny nor dangerous – sexism towards women is directly linked to physical and sexual violence against women and the tendency to blame the victims themselves.”Mėta Adutavičiūtė, Advocacy Manager, Human Rights Monitoring Institute
Case opened: 2016 Case closed: pending Case in point: concerning the declaration that a publication by the news portal www.lrytas.lt that disparages women is contrary to the ethics of journalists and publishers
Facts of the case: 13 January 2016.
The Human Rights Monitoring Institute received a complaint from a natural person regarding the publication “How to spot a whore?” published on the news portal “lrytas.lt”. .
The publication uses derogatory and abusive language to categorise women into “decent” and “indecent” categories.
The HRMI addressed the Commission on Ethics of Public Information, the Inspector of Journalists’ Ethics and the Ombudsman for Equal Opportunities on this potentially unethical and humiliating publication of women as a social group.
HRMI filed a complaint in 2016.
On 30 May 2016, the HRMI lodged a complaint with the European Commission.
On 30 May 2016, the Public Information Ethics Commission, which examined the publication at its meeting, found UAB Lrytas in violation of Article 54 of the Code of Ethics of Journalists and Publishers of Lithuania, as the publication offensively and unethically referred to women as a group of society, formed the opinion that certain negative personal qualities are inherent to women only and/or condemnable only because of their gender, and deepened gender stereotypes.
The Commission has ordered the news portal to remove the publication. Proceedings: 23 June 2016 UAB Lrytas appealed the Commission’s decision to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court. The Human Rights Monitoring Institute intervened in the proceedings as a third interested party. By its ruling of 30 January 2016, the Court upheld the appeal of UAB Lrytas. According to the court, “the object of the publication is not all women as a part of society, but only that group of women who meet the criteria of indecent women specified in the publication.” According to the Court, “[t]he content of the publication implies that the article was intended to create a shocking and disturbing impression, thereby attracting the attention of readers to the subject matter of the publication on account of the behaviour of the women in question, but not solely on account of their gender, that is to say, the women are not classified as indecent because they are female, but rather because of the fact that they act in accordance with the criteria laid down by the author of the publication. Moreover, the producer of public information is entitled to express his opinion by hyperbolizing the facts. HRMI disagreed with the court’s decision and lodged an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania on 28 February 2017. The appeal states that the court of first instance did not fully assess the content of the article and its impact on women, and did not take into account the State’s international obligations in the area of combating sexism. The appeal was accompanied by the opinion of Dr Margarita Jankauskaitė, an expert on equal opportunities, that the article, under the guise of irony and sarcasm, promotes discriminatory attitudes that denigrate women as a social group and sexual bullying. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Council of Europe have recommended that the dissemination of sexist language in the media be combated more vigorously. Degrading sexist language is recognised by the Council of Europe as a form of hate speech against women. Therefore, the Commission has duly fulfilled its international obligations as a State by declaring the publication to be unethical and degrading to women, and by obliging the news portal to remove it. The appeal was admitted for hearing on 03/03/2017.
