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UN-UK-MEDIA: UN Human Rights Chief urges U.K. to tackle tabloid hate speech, after migrants called cockroaches

25 April 2015

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"After decades of sustained and unrestrained anti-foreigner abuse, misinformation and distortion, and in the wake of a recent article in the Sun newspaper calling migrants cockroaches, the UN Human Rights Chief on Friday urged the U.K. authorities, media and regulatory bodies to take steps to curb incitement to hatred by British tabloid newspapers, in line with the countrys obligations under national and international law."

See the full text: UN Human Rights Chief urges U.K. to tackle tabloid hate speech, after migrants called cockroaches (link)

And see the article: UN human rights chief denounces Sun over Katie Hopkins 'cockroach' column - High commissioner launches scathing attack on tabloid columnist, comparing Hopkins migrant remarks with hate language used before Rwandan genocide (Guardian, link):

"The UNs human rights chief has attacked the Sun newspaper for publishing an article by columnist Katie Hopkins, branding her use of the word cockroaches to describe migrants as reminiscent of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda.

In a scathing and extraordinary intervention, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, points out that the word cockroaches was used by both the Nazis and those behind the genocide in Rwanda, and urges the UK government, media and regulators to respect national and international laws on curbing incitement to hatred.

The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches, said Zeid. Escaping Eritrea: 'If I die at sea, it's not a problem at least I won't be tortured': This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper."

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