"Instead of seeking to provide an objective definition of hate speech, the paper’s empirical approach highlights that context matters. More specifically, analysis of the political and socio-economic context in which the speech act occurs and consideration of the nature of the speaker and audience – including their impact and transmission – allows for a nuanced and informed approach to evaluate hate speech, and how this impacts democratisation processes. The paper presents: a general discussion of freedom of speech and its relationship with hate speech; a brief discussion on the definitions of hate speech and international legislation; a short discussion of hate speech in the four country contexts of the MeCoDEM project: Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa." (Executive summary)