Journalists’ strategies of news reporting on parliament members’ hate speech

The authors research the strategies used by Slovenian journalists in reporting on the parliament members hate speech expressed during a discussion about the Family Law. A critical discourse analysis of news reports and in-depth interviews with their authors showed that journalists mostly referred to news sources when condemning hate speech, avoiding their own value judgment because they found commenting in a news genre inappropriate. When citing hate speech, they chose moderate examples out of fear of promoting hate speech. They mostly focused on one parliament member, who had been known for hate speech from the past.