2019 unfortunately took off where the last year left us, with many examples of individuals and entire media outlets spreading anti-religious and racist views. We’ve created a countdown of some of the worst perpetrators of the year: 

In number 12, we have the Belgium paper Doorbraak who published an article recounting a speech Wim de Wit made at an IJzerwake event in which he claimed “In principle, freedom of expression still applies, except when it comes to Muslims, Negroes, holibi’s [homosexual, lesbian and bisexual individuals], Transgender people, transvestites, Gypsies, feminists and certain politicians.”. Read our article where we criticise Doorbraak for their lack of journalistic criticism of the speech.

In 11th place, we have the French TV Channel LCI, which broadcast an episode of ’24 Pujadas’ where they invited Robert Ménard  (known for his racist, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stance) along with Guillaume Tabard (editor-in-chief of Le Figaro) onto the show, where Tabard said ‘We had lived through deadly Islamist terrorism in France, so if we want to keep score, we are not yet even’. Read our article on why LCI’s decision to include these guests and the statement is insensitive and wrong.

In 10th place, is the Hungarian public service website Hirado for reporting a government press conference on Brussels’ distribution of migrant cards. Despite the government spokesman suggesting that the recipients of this financial assistance were ‘anonymous’, and that there might be some ISIS members involved, Hirado decided not to critically report on this discriminatory rhetoric, thus allowing the Islamophobic statements to appear factual. 

Coming in at number 9 is the Belgium party Vlaams Belang for their Islamophobic rhetoric in November. When an asylum centre in the city of Bilzen was torched down, many assumed it was supporters of Vlaams Belang due to their protests on the site a few days prior. Their party leader was outraged by the assumptions but used his speech to spread anti-Islam views and that Islamisation of the country would be supported by his opponents.

Greek lifestyle magazine ‘Athens’ is in at number 8, for publishing an article where the author suggests that ‘Jewish banks’ are partially a cause of the Greek debt. This article displays blatant antisemitism, promoting dangerous antisemitic theories and furthering well-established conspiracy theories.

In 7^th place, is the French online newspaper Atlantico, for an article published about the Decathlon – Hijab controversy, where the sports chain created a ‘running’ hijab, which caused a backlash on social media by people claiming it was an example of the ‘Islamisation’ of France. The article’s headline suggested the hijab was a ‘victory for the Muslim Brotherhood’, thus spreading anti-Muslim sentiment.

In at number 6 is PI News, a far-right German news website, which discusses the latest birth rate figures, and suggests that the rise in foreign-born babies reflected the ‘Islamisation’ of Germany and Europe. It also states the number of ‘true’ Germans is lower than what the figures reveal. Using these far-right tropes, the article spreads strong anti-Islam ideas, and encourages its readers to agree with them about the scale of the ‘problem’. 

Number 5 is another entry from Hirado, along with its sister public broadcaster MTI, and it is due to their spreading of fear-mongering lies on refugees, stating in an article that ‘40,000 migrants are about to set off from Turkey and Greece towards Central Europe, to be joined along the way by many more’, followed by multiple similar stories on the subject.

In number 4, is the Belgium group Vismooil’n VZW for their extremely antisemitic float which displayed caricatured orthodox Jews with several antisemitic features, including long ugly noses, bags full of cash and coins and rats in their dresses, while attending the annual Carnival parade in the Belgian city of Aalst. TV broadcasters and city officials barely made any comments on its antisemitic nature.

In 3rd place, is the British far-right news site Politicalite. The article reads like a conspiracy theory and uses many of the well-known far-right tropes such as the ‘Great Replacement’ theory. It is written by Bethany Helmsley, who also writes for a blog called ‘Spotting The Serpent’s Tail’ where they recently published a post calling for ‘for the “cleansing” of those who make Britain multicultural.’ 

German paper Der Spiegel just misses out on top spot, settling for second place. The article suggests it was an ‘investigative piece’, but it used well-known anti-Semitic tropes to push an anti-Jewish narrative, specifically in reference to two lobby groups which they suggested had influenced German politicians. 

And our troll of the year goes to – Rod Liddle and the Spectator. In November, columnist Rod Liddle had an article published in the right-wing paper, suggesting that ‘Muslims should be prevented from voting in the next general election’ causing outrage on social media for its clear Islamophobic comments. Following the backlash, Riddle defended himself by saying that his suggestions were ‘patently a joke’, despite the multiple examples of Islamophobia in his work prior to this.

Over the past few months, major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been under increasing pressure to monitor and remove hateful, potentially dangerous content from their platforms. Many have taken this criticism into account; Facebook recently announced that it would treat all white supremacy messages with the same vigilance as terrorism content, while Twitter amended its hate speech policies to include anything that dehumanises a group of people, with specific attention to anti-religious hatred.

Get The Trolls Out! partner MDI (Media Diversity Institute) complained to PayPal after British media personality Katie Hopkins released a propaganda movie called “Homelands” in June. The film promotes anti-Muslim and xenophobic ideas, and pits the Jewish and Muslim communities against one another.

How to understand and spot hate speech and what are the best ways to counter it? This was the focus of a training course for high school students held by Get The Trolls Out! partner “Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece” in Thessaloniki, Greece.

British media personality Katie Hopkins released a propaganda movie called “Homelands” this month. The film promotes anti-Muslim and xenophobic ideas, and pits the Jewish and Muslim communities against one another. 

From an article discussing German birth rates to push the far-right ‘Great Replacement’ narrative to a Greek bishop using his religous platform to spread anti-Muslim ideas, these June highlights are an overview of the most significant results of our monitoring of traditional and new media in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.

The Telegraph journalist Nick Timothy wrote an article about the alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, equating the genuine worries from Muslims to a ‘game.’ This is the UK’s media monitoring highlight for June.

Belgian journalist Salima Belabbas was abused with racist comments on social media after presenting the RTL Info news bulletin for her first time. This is Belgium’s media monitoring highlight for June.

Hungarian state news agency website Hirado uncritically reports Fidesz press conference’s statements about EU humanitarian programmes, spreading unfounded fears about terrorism. This is Hungary’s media monitoring highlight for June.

In an interview, Etienne Chouard, a teacher and well-known Yellow Vests political activist, was asked to clarify his position on the Holocaust. While trying to remain vague, Chouard claimed to have no knowledge about the Holocaust and expressed some ambiguous doubts on the existence of the gas chambers. This is France’s media monitoring highlight for June.