In certain circumstances, it is acceptable
for companies to take ‘affirmative
action’ – positive steps taken to help
a particular group that has suffered
serious long-term discrimination in
order to reverse that trend. These
measures may sometimes entail
‘positive’ or ‘reverse’ discrimination.
The second part of Article 20 of the
ICCPR is directed against ‘hate speech’,
which is speech that vilifies people and
incites hatred against them on the basis
of their race, religion or nationality.
This aspect of the right is of particular
significance to media companies and
also telecommunications companies
that host blogs, forums, websites etc.