Iraq’s media is ‘systematically promoting hate speech and violence against’ LGBT+ people and even supporting militias mounting ‘killing campaigns targeting LGBT+ people’.
Those are among the major findings of a new report by LGBT+ organization IraQueer. It highlights how Iraqi reports use offensive words, give platform to people spreading hate and even tell outright lies.
For example, TV reports called LGBT+ people ‘faggots’, ‘sinners’, ‘abnormal’, ‘mentally ill’, ‘outcasts’, ‘lustful’ and ‘prostitutes’.
Researchers found the shows they tracked used these 1,574 times. By comparison they only used neutral terms like ‘the LGBT+ community’ and ‘gay’ 98 times.