Annual Report 2014 - Discrimination and the Roma community

Discrimination and the Roma Community 2014

36.

National.

The media.

Direct discrimination.

We received an e-mail at the FSG from a person informing us of

the following:

“Dear sirs,

Again I am contacting you to inform you that a news item has appeared in the press explicitly mentio-

ning the ethnicity of the people involved. In this case, unfortunate terms such as “clan” were used thus

contributing to put Roma in a negative light.

I would remind you that the explicit mention of ethnicity when reporting on news stories does not add

any relevant information and simply serves to perpetuate stigmatising stereotypes.

I would also reiterate that you should take a decisive stand with the media that insist on maintaining

these unprofessional journalistic practices.

I am at your disposal to advise you in regard to the development of strategies to combat this type of

anti-gypsyism”.

This is the link to the news story:

tos/ csrcsrpor/20131101csrcsrsoc_6/Tes?google_editors_picks=true

We occasionally receive emails like these informing us of racist and discriminatory comments and news against

the Roma community. This goes to show that some citizens are sensitive to these poor journalistic practices.

casE 36