Annual Report Discrimination 2015

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Cases of discrimination in the media
56. Sabadell. Direct discrimination. Internet. On the feast of
San Jordi (Saint George) when the tradition is to send people
flowers, the following message was found on Twitter: “To-
day is a beautiful and special day. Something happens today
that you can only see once a year, a bunch of Gypsies work-
ing!!!! Ha ha ha. Thanks everyone for your warm greetings.”
This is just another example of discrimination against the
Roma community motivated by negative prejudices and
stereotypes. In this case, the author of that comment is in-
sinuating that Roma work little or not at all, again spreading a
stereotyped image of Roma who do not work.
57. Catalonia. Press. Direct discrimination.
The digital newspaper in Catalonia published a story about a Dominican who murdered a Roma
man because of the latter’s alleged involvement in the murder of a famous Dominican rap singer.
The Department contacted the newspaper to express our misgivings about revealing the ethnic background of
people allegedly involved in a crime. Ethnicity had nothing to do with the news story.
To date we have received no reply.
58. Barcelona. The media. Direct discrimination. The FSG Barcelona office received a letter with press clippings
about Eastern European Roma with hand-written notes around the edges. The letter was sent in relation to an
article in the press about the conviction of two Mossos d’Esquadra (regional Catalonia police officers, often re-
ferred to as Mossos) for abusive treatment of a Romanian Roma woman. The letter was addressed to the FSG’s
Equality Department which was cited in the media for its role in leading the case against the police officers.
Following is a transcription (originally in Catalan) of some of those handwritten notes:
“Do you recognise these people, Madame?” (Referring to a news story about a Roma ‘clan’ from Bosnia
caught robbing people in the Barcelona underground.)
“These blokes are very well known in the underground and surrounding areas” (referring to a story about
stolen gold jewellery).
“Do you know them Madame? The Mossos and underground security people know them” (referring to
another story about pickpockets in the underground).
“Maybe you could come and teach us to how to be good citizens” (referring to the article about the
conviction of the two officers together with another one about problems of co-existence in Badalona).
“Under Romanian law do you think these people would be out on the street? I’m sure you would be out
there defending their ‘human rights’.” You should be ASHAMED of yourself.
In the news clippings, mentions of the FSG or the origin of the people in the story (Romania, etc.) are marked
with a highlighter.
It is worth mentioning that the press clippings identify all of the Romanian Roma with delinquency rather than
focusing on the specific case that the FSG defended regarding a victim of unfair treatment by the Mossos. The
letter mixes isolated cases of robberies allegedly committed by Roma from Eastern Europe with the woman
who was a victim of police abuse in an attempt to identify this woman with delinquent behaviour. Actually, the
origin of this case of discrimination was poor police practice as was determined in the court’s ruling.
CASE 56