Indicator history

The Romanian equality body, the National Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD) in its report on the implementation of the race directive, included a chapter on the way discrimination on the ground of ethnicity, race and nationality is being reflected in the media.

The NCCD speaks of situations where people with notoriety have been at the centre of discriminatory incidents and the media consequently had a high interest in the specific topics as well as of the attitude of the media towards specific issues connected to minorities, and mentions that the Roma minority takes the biggest part of the attention.

With regards to the Roma, the report states:

“The endeavors which part of the press has made in view of eliminating or at least diminishing the discriminatory attitudes to which ethnic Roma are being victim have been reduced in their impact precisely because of articles which have promoted existing stereotypes.

In other word, the appeal to tolerance which the written press has made on various accounts has been practically annulled by the presentation of the Roma ethnicity in terms such as ‘thieves’, ‘poor people’, ‘beggars’. We find numerous accounts where the Roma continue to be presented in connection with having perpetrated some crimes (human trafficking, marriages between minors or blackmail). The explanations which journalists offer with regards to the discriminatory attitude towards the Roma ethnicity are limited to underlining the apparent incapacity of the latter to take over and respect elementary social norms.”

The report gives more specific details and examples, and also gives a few examples related to the Hungarian minority, especially in the context of sports events and thus sports media.

Source:

National Council for Combating Discrimination, Report on the implementation of the race directive in Romania, 2003-2010, p. 98, available at: http://cncd.org.ro/files/file/Raport%20D43_2000_CNCD_final.pdf (Accessed on 14.03.2012)