Jourova: Estonia, EU must find a common hate speech definition together
Estonia and the European Commission should work together to find a definition of hate speech that Estonia can adopt into law, Vera Jourova, European commissioner for values and transparency, said in an interview last week.
Jourova told Monday's "Välisilm" that she discussed Estonia's resistance towards EU laws on hate speech with the minister of justice.
Last week, the European Commission started infringement proceedings against Estonia for not transporting the EU legislation into law.
Estonia is one of the only member states that has not adopted the legislation.
"I don't want to say that Estonia is not doing enough, I mean that we, together, should look at how we define hate speech in the proper way together," she said.
"I think that for me hate speech is speech that has the potential to cause harm. Real harm. To real people. And we will maybe have to work more with Estonia on making a more precise definition"
Jourova was also questioned about European values, misinformation and free speech, democracy in Hungary and Poland, confiscating Russian assets, and Russia's war in Ukraine.
She also thanked Estonia and the Estonian people for accepting refugees, calling it "the best example of solidarity"
Watch the full 15-minute interview — in English with Estonian subtitles — below.
Jourova was in Tallinn on Friday and participated in a public seminar about European values during wartime with Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu.
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Editor: Helen Wright
Source: Välisilm
