Prof. Tarlach McGonagle (IViR) has been appointed co-rapporteur of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Combating Hate Speech. The committee’s main task is to prepare a draft recommendation for adoption by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on a comprehensive approach to addressing hate speech, including in the context of an online environment, within a human rights framework. The recommendation will be addressed to the organisation’s 47 member states.

This is the fourth successive committee of experts at the Council of Europe of which Prof. McGonagle has been a member. He previously served as Rapporteur of the committees of experts (2014-5; 2016-7) that drafted the Committee of Ministers’ Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 to Member States on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors and Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)1 to Member States on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership. He was also a member of the Committee of Experts on quality journalism in the digital age (2018-9), whose draft recommendation has been submitted to the Committee of Ministers for adoption.