After media reports that racist attacks and comments instigating hatred and violence had appeared on the internet portal lrytas.lt, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute demanded that the comments in question be removed immediately and the persons responsible be prosecuted.
A few days ago, 15-16 neo-Nazis attacked a Gana citizen in the Vilnius town center. The article “Erica Jennings Shocked by Racist Attack” which appeared in the daily “Lietuvos rytas” and news portal Lrytas.lt followed on May 31, 2007. The comments in the article on Lrytas.lt were of an obvious criminal nature and instigated violence and hatred against people of different racial backgrounds.
Certain comments correspond to the description of a criminal offense described in Article 170 of the Lithuanian Penal Code (“Instigation against groups of people of any nationality, ethnic, racial, religious or other background.”). Therefore, HRMI appealed to the Vilnius City Chief Prosecutor to initiate a pretrial investigation concerning the persons responsible for the above-mentioned comments. See the appeal (in Lithuanian) here.
HRMI also suggested that the Chief Editor of Lrytas.lt remove racist comments from the news portal immediately. In a few hours, the editor had successfully removed the offending articles. See the letter to the Chief Editor (in Lithuanian) here.
An increasing number of hate crimes and the considerable support for the offenders raises serious concerns. Therefore, it is crucial that state officials, law and order institutions and the media and NGOs take immediate action to stop the spread and instigation of hatred and violence, and that the inciters be duly prosecuted.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute