MONITORING REPORT ON HATE SPEECH IN NORTH MACEDONIA – 2025

People often hate what they do not understand or perceive as a threat. When repeated often enough, such fears become embedded in collective thinking, shaping how societies view “the other”.

This is where the media becomes central. Media outlets do not merely report events; they interpret and frame them. The choice of words, images, and headlines can either calm fears and foster understanding or amplify insecurities and feed hostility. In North Macedonia, where politics, ethnicity, and identity are deeply intertwined, the media often serves as both a mirror and a magnifier of existing tensions.

Monitoring the media, therefore, is not simply about tracking information. It is about examining how narratives are constructed, how hate speech and disinformation spread, and how these processes can be influenced or modified in order to form counter-narrative.

In the period from January 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, most recorded cases of hate speech targeted ethnicity, followed by political opponents. When analyzing multiple categories, it became evident that politicians from different ethnic backgrounds were among the most frequent targets. This pattern reflects the deeply rooted ethnic and political divisions in North Macedonia.

Hate speech directed toward the Albanian population reinforced the divisive narrative portraying Albanians as the “core problem” of Macedonian society. This trend was confirmed by both narrative and sentiment analyses, which revealed that the highest intensity of hate was consistently based on ethnicity.

Another category with a high number of cases was gender-based hate, especially targeting women. Alongside ethnic and political lines, we observed harmful narratives that focused on women’s personal lives and appearance rather than their professional roles. Very often, domestic violence was openly justified in comments, accompanied by narratives that confined women to conservative roles and prescribed how a woman “should” behave. During this monitoring period, such narratives were further amplified by state officials and representatives of the church, who often linked them to a traditional family context, defining how a “proper” family should look and how women should behave within it.

The main generators of hate speech were private individuals, primarily through Facebook posts and comments on online portals. While these portals generally do not publish hate speech directly, their sensationalistic and unethical reporting often fuels harmful narratives, which is why they ranked second in terms of generating hate speech. Although these platforms have an obligation to moderate content, they frequently fail or refuse to do so.

Another factor contributing to the high levels of hate speech in the media is the existing regulation, which is often poorly enforced, with high-profile politicians frequently excluded from accountability. Although North Macedonia has legislation to combat hate speech, enforcement remains weak and inconsistent.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) has not yet been implemented and given that most hate speech is found on Facebook, the need for effective regulation is even more urgent. North Macedonia is making efforts to implement these measures as part of the EU negotiation process.

This report is part of the regional monitoring of hate speech in the media conducted by partner organizations across Western Balkan countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, under the Reporting Diversity Network.

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