The ban on hate speech should be a widely accepted fact, implemented in all social and legislative spheres. However, this is not the case in the Republic of Croatia for several reasons and the aim of this paper is to demonstrate a theoretical and practical mismatch in defining, detecting and sanctioning hate speech or implement consequences for such actions. Hate speech has been specifically detected on social networks in recent years and no legal regulations have been implemented to sanction it. Also, hate speech is not uncommon within the media. But that raises the question among journalists on whether their right to freedom of speech is violated under the pretext of hate speech. This sort of understanding of hate speech is influenced the lack of a clear and precisely drawn boundary where freedom of speech ceases and hate speech begins. Previous research on hate speech and how it should be sanctioned mostly reference research on existing legislation that should be sanctioning hate speech, but there is no law that clearly defines it as a criminal offense. What constitutes a ban or punishment will be presented in this paper through individual cases, court decisions and current public events. In order to get a clear picture of hate speech in Croatia, an online survey was conducted and the answers of the participants showed a lack of understanding of hate speech. This is confirmed by the fact that 66,3% of the participants believed that hate speech is not being properly sanctioned in Croatia. But the survey also showed, as well as GONG's report that was specifically prepared for the purposes of this paper, that Croatian citizens aren't sure either where the boundary between free speech and hate speech ends.