AGCOM has adopted a regulation aimed at ensuring respect for human dignity and of the principle of non-discrimination and contrast to hate speech and incitement to hatred based on ethnicity, sex, religion or nationality in audiovisual media services. With reference to the topic of hate speech , the Authority considered the risk that the growing centrality in the national and international public debate on the policies of governing migration flows from countries in a state of war or in an emergency socio-economic, can generate polarized and divisive positions on the figure of the weak minorities and his media representation, favoring generalizations and stereotypes that undermine social cohesion, which offend the dignity of categories of persons subject to hate speech and discrimination on a basis ethnic or religious. In this regard, due to the pervasiveness of the broadcast media e of the important contribution that radio and television information plays in order to formation of a public opinion, social inclusion and the promotion of diversity, the Authority considered essential
to adopt a regulation aimed at preventing and combating discrimination, often fed by disinformation strategies, in contrast to the fundamental principles of protection of the person and respect for human dignity, in particular when fueled by inaccurate, biased or untruthful information.
According to the latest figures released by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), hate crimes, mostly based on racism and xenophobia are almost doubled over a three-year period, from 2013 to 2018, confirming the fears of one possible correlation between the growing diffusion of hate speech ( hate speech ) on different media and the increase of concrete and violent attacks ( hate harm ), although isolated, in relation to categories of persons subject to targeted actions, according to a worrying scheme that seems to unite, moreover, the numerous episodes that happened in recent months, with the limelight taken, on the various media, by the national public debate and international on the phenomenon of migratory flows and rescue policies
humanitarian, welcome, integration and education to diversity.
Added to this is the fact that the topics covered in the information programs are of Radio and television entertainment is often taken up in social media represent significant forms, sometimes prevalent for some sections of the population,
access to information, as well as expression, training and sedimentation of public opinion.
Since the information requirement is met primarily by the media mass communication which, pursuant to art. 21 of the Constitution as interpreted from constitutional and ordinary jurisprudence, they must contribute to providing to the public
opinion a complete, objective, impartial and pluralistic information, the Authority notes that the exercise of the right to criticize and to report must be based on criteria of factual truth, of essentiality and actuality, starting from the correct representation of the facts and from the dissemination of verified data and statistically significant comparisons.