Annual Report 2014 - Discrimination and the Roma community

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Cases of discrimination in the media
It was completely unnecessary to mention that the person in question was Roma. The only purpose served by
that is the proliferation and underscoring of negative prejudices and stereotypes against the Roma community
because the acts of one individual tend to be extrapolated to the entire community.
7. Salamanca. The media. Direct discrimination. A story ran on the front page of the La Gaceta Regional de
Salamanca newspaper about police confiscation of a certain quantity of hashish. Later in the article the journalist
specifically refers to the ethnic group of the people involved. Racist comments soon followed in the digital
edition of the paper.
This is another example of how the media, in this case the written press, manages to create and reinforce prej-
udice and negative stereotypes against the Roma community by mentioning the ethnic group of the people
involved in their news stories.
8. Salamanca. The media. Direct discrimination. La Gaceta Regional de Salamanca newspaper reported that
nine families most of them gypsies, were squatting in seven social houses belonging to the local government
of Béjar (Salamanca). The families claimed that they had nowhere else to live and that they are willing to die
before leaving.
The forum of the digital version of the paper posted a series of racist comments against Roma:
“Free houses, free electricity, no taxes, driving without a license, cars without insurance, no liability when
they have an accident, they run the Plaza Mayor (main square); send them all back to Romania which is
where the SCOUNDRELS came from in the first place.”
“WHEN YOU EVICT THEM, BE CAREFUL BECAUSE THEY’RE SPECIALISTS IN NECK BRACES TO GET IN-
SURANCE MONEY. THEY SHOULD CHAIN THEM BY THEIR NECKS TO KEEP THEM OUT OF MISCHIEF.”
casE 8