1
Cristina Pace
The Witch Hunts: the Impact of Media and Public Opinion on Minority
Protection, Ethnic Discrimination and Racism. The case of Roma in Europe
Contents
Introduction and Outline.
1. Nationalism and Nation-Sate, New Racism and the Power of Media.
2. Roma: the Eternally Discriminated People.
3. Media Discourse and Minority Rights.
4. Case Study: Roma’s Minorities in Italy.
5. Conclusions, Recommendations and Proposals for Action.
Bibliography
“All human rights exist for the protection of minorities”, Paul Sieghart (The Lawful Rights of Mankind, 1986) “An encounter with Others is not a simple, automatic thing, but involves will and an effort that not everyone is always ready to undertake” (RyszardKapuscinski, The Other, 2008)
Abbreviations COE Council of Europe EC European Commission ECRI European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance EUMC European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia FRA European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights OSI Open Society Institute
Introduction and Outline
The aim of this essay is to focus on the responsibility of media and public opinion in Western
states when considering issues of discrimination of ethnic minorities and human rights;
through an analysis of the media attitudes towards ethic minorities, the media description of
these minorities and its effect on the general social and political context.1 The media and the
1 In the words of Teun A.Van Dijk, the “social context consists of the activities of journalists in news making, as
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news that they disseminate in the general context, “play an important role in the reproduction
of racial and ethnic inequality in the society”, media discourse being“the main source of
peoples knowledge, attitudes and ideologies, both of other élites and of ordinary
citizens”(Van Dijk 2000: 33-36).
The role of media will be considered at the same time as an essential tool for shaping (or re-
shaping) the national identity of a nation and media will be considered as playing an
important role in social cohesion (or social conflict) as well as in the propagation of a more or
less homogeneous picture of a country.2
Politicians, educators, scholars and media élites control the access to most public discourse
and for this reason have a specific role and liability in these forms of discursive racism as well
as “a specific control over minority groups, whose everyday life they are able to control by
their discourse, policies and decisions in positions of power”(Van Dijk2000: 36).
The thesis is that, since we are living in a time of multiculturalism and globalization where
largely homogenous societies are becoming ethnically diverse; a new, inclusive definition of
national identity is required, which recognize this change in Western States and the diversity
of multiethnic societies, “transcending the dominant framework of the nation-state and
liberal individualism”(Dersso, 2007: 2).
In this respect, it is important to underline that, as highlighted by the history of the last thirty
years, minority rights and the issue of peaceful coexistence of different communities in
society, are not a marginal human rights question, solely of concern of the individual or group
involved, but a question of concern for the society as a whole.
The need for a more tailored approach to minorities has been recognized under international
human rights law, but only by the end of the cold war in the late 1980s. This acknowledgment
was in fact a consequence of a series of violent and serious ethnic conflicts, which have been
dramatically characterized the post-cold War period, and have prompted international law to
develop mechanisms to respond to these issues, reconsidering the international law’s position
well as the interpretation of readers, in the increasingly multicultural societies of western Europe and North America”. The theoretical and methodological approach used is “discourse analytical”, this meaning that news are not treated as “transparent messages whose contents may be analyzed in a superficial, quantitative way”, but in relation to “the complex structures and strategies of news reports and their relation to the social context” (Van Dijk 2000: 33). 2 Cfr. Kianzad, B., (2008), Media and Minority Rights. The role of media in promoting social cohesion and enforcing human rights of ethnic minorities in nation states, University essay from Lunds universitet.
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on minority rights and the urgency of developing the necessary framework for resolving such
conflicts (Dersso 2007, Vijapur2006).3
It became obvious, as underlined by Vijapur in his article, that one of the main reason for
present and past ethnic conflicts worldwide is the low participation level of minorities in the
power-sharing and decision-making process of their countries and that “besides according
them legal protection and practicing tolerance towards them, peace is not possible in these
multi-ethnic states” (Vijapur2006: 368)
At the same time, it should be acknowledged that the idea of an ethno-cultural homogenous
state where people speak the same language, share the same religion and have a similar ethnic
background is an obsolete one, far away from the reality.
On the contrary, following the suggestion of Solomon Dersso, this paper will argue that
“multiethnicity rather than homogeneity is an essential value of the human condition in
multiethnic societies that States need to take account of” (Dersso 2007: 2).
The material in this essay is divided in five sections. The first section will give a short
overview to the “critical discourse analysis (CDA)” approach to minority rights and the
different theories on racism and “new(s) racism”(Van Dijk2000).The second section will
analyze theories of critical discourse analysis applied to a specific group of people, the Roma
of Europe which, with their history of persecution and discrimination throughout all Eastern
as well as Western European countries, represents one of the most discriminated group in
Europe nowadays. This analysis will show how the national and international media have a
strong impact on how public opinion perceive the image of this specific group of people and
in which way this image influences a general discriminative attitude towards them as well as
public policies affecting their daily lives, fostering a series of more or less consolidated
stereotypes and prejudices towards them. If Roma, as well as other minorities, are always
portrayed in negative terms, as dirty, lazy, antisocial, then it is obvious to suppose that they
will have harder time when looking for house, employment, or when they will try to integrate
and participate to the public and cultural life of their country. At the same time it is easy to
3 Ethnic based conflicts in the 20th century ranged from those involving Jews as well as Roma people and other minority groups with their attempted extermination by the Nazi regime during World War II, to the diverse racial groups in South Africa and Namibia, to longstanding tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, genocidal fighting between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi, violence in Basque region and Algeria, separatist movements in Quebec, Senegal, Kurd and East Timor and civil wars in the Balkans, Sudan, DRC and Cote d’Ivoire. UN reported that in the first half of the 1990s alone, nearly five millions of people died as a result of civil wars and ethnic conflicts. For a detailed analysis of ethnic based conflicts in the 20th century see: Gurr, Ted R. Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflict, U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 1993, and Gurr, Ted R. People versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century, Washington, D.C United States Institute of Peace, 2000.
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imagine how those negative attitudes towards them can be easily converted in violence and
explicit racist attacks and pogroms against them, as it already happened in many democratic
countries of Europe, included the recent tragic events in Italy.4 The third section will further
analyze the role of media and public opinion in shaping a concept of national identity and
their possible, positive or negative contribution, to the creation of a new, inclusive, more
cosmopolitan concept of Nation-State and national identity, one that recognizes the diversity
of contemporary multiethnic societies. It will be underlined as an enlightened media discourse
can contribute to a more pluralistic and heterogeneous society where the ethnic minorities
would be subjected to a lesser degree of discrimination and prejudices, enjoying the full range
of human rights, which is the aim of both national constitutions and international legal
treaties. A fourth section will analyze as an example the actual situation of Roma in Italy,
through different reports and statistics proving their tangible discrimination through both
media practices and public policies. Some examples from Italian press coverage will be used
in order to illustrate the relation between media and discrimination practices towards
minorities. The final section will discuss some recommendations and proposals for action.
1. Nationalism and Nation-Sate, New Racism and the Power of Media.
The peace of Westphalia (1648) is commonly considered as the beginning of a new political
and territorial order in Europe, assisting to the rise of the modern concept of Nation-State, a
state conceived with well-defined territorial borders, a single cultural/social identity, common
language, values and history. The Treaty of Westphalia initiated a new political order based
upon the concept of a sovereign state and the related national identity was thus defined by its
territorial and ethno-cultural characteristics rather then its religious or monarchical features.
A working definition of Nation-State is provided for example by Valery Tishkov, which
defines states as “self-identifies deriving their political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign
entity for a country as a sovereign territorial unit”. The state is a political and geopolitical
entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity. The term "Nation-State" implies that the
two geographically coincide, and this distinguishes the Nation State from the other types of
state, which historically preceded it (Tishkov 2000: 627).
The last two hundred years of European political history have therefore witnessed the rise and
the legitimization of the modern concept of Nation-State which have a tendency to become an
4 Compare with paragraph 4 of this essay.
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“ethnic State”, that is to say a “State which belong to an ethnic majority” (Gheorghe N.,
Acton T. 1994: 29).
This idea of “state unity” was often put into practice through a policy of socio-cultural
homogenization and political integration of the population of a State, and frequently imposed
by hegemonic political élites to subordinate social groups considered as socially marginal.
The rise of Nation-States in fact required the construction of a national identity, an identity
that was supposed to be different from “others” not belonging to “us”, to the nation.
The identity of a nation, in this way, was directly interlinked with the creation of “the
Others”, conceived at the same time as a concern and a threat to the majority society. In this
way, “we” are always described as good, rational, modern, law-abiding, gender-conscious,
tolerant and “them”, the “others”, are described as backward, traditionalist, criminal and so
on (Brune 2004: 394) implying at the same time, the West’s hegemony over the East, the
supremacy of rationality over irrationality, of Enlightment over traditionalism and so on.5
As explained by Edward Said in his classical book Orientalism (1978), it is possible to retrace
the origin of negative stereotypes towards minorities considering the Western historical
background of colonization. The age of colonization and imperialization contributed to
forming an unfair and unbalanced view of non-European people and cultures. In his book,
Said underlines the term “Orientalism” as a collection of false preconceptions characterizing
Western attitudes toward non-western countries. This body of scholarship is marked by a
"subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and their
culture." He therefore argues that a long tradition of romanticized images of Asia and the
Middle East in Western culture has served as an implicit justification for European and the
American colonial and imperial ambitions (Said 1979).
It should be noticed however that, as underlined by Carolyn Vogler among other scholars, it is
a dangerous practice to consider national citizenship as “an exclusive club based on social
closure against those not seen as belonging to the nation”, being this a “very powerful basis
for the play of unconscious paranoid processes in which members of a nation are able to rid
themselves of bad objects and destructive impulses by projecting them onto commonly shared
and accepted external enemies” (Vogler 2002: 62).
The contraposition between “us” and “them” can become dangerous and create social
conflicts when “we” are always defined as good, rational, modern and law-abiding, and
5 Please refer also to: Anderson, B., (2006), Imagined Communities, Verso Books, Rev. Ed edition, in which Benedict Anderson reflects on the origin and global spread of nationalisms and examines the creation of “imagined communities” of nationality.
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“them” are always defined as bad, irrational, barbaric, traditional and criminals. Such
contraposition can in fact lead, as it happens many times, to alarmist and populist feelings and
to a general negative attitude towards migrants and foreigners, weakening social cohesion and
solidarity with migrants.
A typical example is the media’s description of Muslims as a violent and dangerous
community, potential terrorists and disrespectful of women and host society, a picture that can
easily lead to the assumption that all Muslims are the same and that a direct link exists
between ethnic minorities in general and criminality.6
The same applies to Roma people, typically portrayed by media and public discourse as a
"social problem", responsible for their own marginalization and misery, disrespectful or not
willing to integrate with the rest of the population in the host society, confirming and
reinforcing a long series of stereotypes by which Roma are defined as untrustworthy,
dishonest, dirty, lazy, violent, and often as criminals, thieves, or kidnappers (Human Rights
First 2008: 108).
The Council of Europe, in collaboration with the European Commission, in the framework of
The Dosta! Campaign,7 has listed in its report at least 16 emblematic stereotypes concerning
Roma people underlining how discrimination and prejudice is deeply rooted in European
democratic societies and how those stereotypes are surprisingly most often not even
conceived as such:
“Those who suffer from them have to engage in the tiring task of convincing others that they are being discriminated for no reason. One obvious sign of anti-Gypsyism is the fact that many people who have never had close, personal contact with Roma are nonetheless able to provide a detailed picture of them. How they look, live, and behave. Very often the behaviour of one individual is automatically applied to all ‘Gypsies’. The (negative) behaviour is attributed to Romani culture, not to the individual in question” (COE, EC 2006: 5) Such old prejudices keep being repeated in the media discourses finally assume the form of
“unofficial truth”. These forms of racism and subtle discrimination are particularly dangerous
and “may hurt even more, especially when they seem to be so normal, so natural, and so
commonsensical to those who engage in such discourse and interaction” (Van Dijk 2000: 34).
6 For more detail information regarding the link between ethnic groups and criminality please refer to: Maneri M. and Ter Wal Jessica, ‘The Criminalisation of Ethnic Groups: an Issue for Media Analysis’, pp. 1-28, in Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 6, No 3, 2005. 7Awareness raising campaign launched by the Council of Europe, in collaboration with the European commission in 2006. It has been implemented in five Eastern European countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in 2006-2007, as well as launched in Moldova and Ukraine in 2008 and in Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia in 2009.
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Generally, since the rise of the modern Nation-State, the role of media in shaping public
opinion has been essential in disseminating official policies and creating a picture of the new
Nation-State based on characteristics such as a common language, cultural heritage and
history. In this way, however, through mass media outlets and reviews, a false, imagined
picture of the nation has been spread.
Many scholars have challenged the “homogeneity” of Nation-state and the idea of a
homogenous culture and language as the main prerequisite of every Nation-State.8
The decolonization and globalization process together with the increased migrant and
refugees movements, the advent of the new information era, as well as of the new enlarged
European Union, brought a fast and complete metamorphosis of the old concept of Nation-
State further weakening the old Westphalian system. Globalization and mass migration
especially during the 20th century in Europe “have radically challenged the idea of a
sovereign, territorial defined Nation State, with a single social/cultural identity and a
common language and history” (Kianzad 2008: 10).
By closer examination the idea of an ethno-cultural homogenous state where people speak the
same language, have a similar ethnic background and share the same religion has always been
only an illusion. “Homogeneous states” of the old Westphalian system were never all that
homogeneous as it seems as well as the national identity has never been so exclusive. The
advent of the globalization era has finally outdated the old idea of homogenous nation states,
even though the majority of western countries are still reluctant in accepting these changes,
while countless religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural communities now inhabit European
countries and cities.
As highlighted through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, many forms of
violations of universal human rights have nowadays changed and assumed a different
character: instead of a visible, often aggressive type of discrimination which can be applied to
“a time long gone, when colonies, apartheid and slavery were still in effect”; today the (new)
racism and discrimination is expressed in a more subtle, symbolic and indirect way, in a
sublime and physically non-aggressive form, tacitly accepted by the majority of the
population. In this case the media have a central role as they represent the most important
carrier of messages and values in the information society. Many forms of the new racism are
in fact ‘discursive’, expressed by daily texts and talks (Kianzad, 2008: 8). 8 See: Kianzad, B., (2008), Media and Minority Rights. The role of media in promoting social cohesion and enforcing human rights of ethnic minorities in nation states, University essay from Lunds universitet.
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Expressed with the words of Teun A.Van Dijk:
“In many respects, contemporary forms of racism are different from the old racism of slavery, segregation, apartheid, lynchings, and systematic discrimination, of white superiority feelings, and of explicit derogation in public discourse and everyday conversation. The New Racism (Barker 1981) wants to be democratic and respectable, and hence first off denies that it is racism. Real Racism, in this framework of thought, exists only among the Extreme Right. In the New Racism, minorities are not biologically inferior, but different. They have a different culture, although in many respects there are deficiencies, such as single-parent families, drug abuse, lacking achievement values, and dependence on welfare and affirmative action pathologies that need to be corrected of course”(Van Dijk 2000: 33-34, emphasis added).
The consequences of those forms of discursive racism in the lives of members of minority
groups do not need to be demonstrated. Negative stereotyping concretely affect and worsen
the possibilities of minorities to an equal enjoyment of all basic human rights such as housing,
health care, education, employment, participation to political life, access to law, justice and
legal remedies. Official or unofficial discrimination against Roma extends in fact to the full
range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and excludes many Roma
communities across Europe from the full enjoyment of human rights.
In conclusion, it has been widely demonstrated how the role of media and other intellectual
élites in shaping the public opinion and disseminating official policies among the population
is of extreme importance, especially when talking about social cohesion and formation of a
heterogeneous national identity.
My point in this essay is that the media has an important role in social cohesion being able to
change the way in which people from different communities view and relate to each other.
A fair and balanced reporting respectful of the identity of the migrants will help bridging the
gap between the different ethnic enclaves, while an unfair and limited reporting will lead to
prejudices and discrimination.
2. Roma: the Eternally Discriminated People.
In line with the main scope of this essay I will highlight the link between media practices and
prejudices against ethnic minorities, with a special focus on the situation of Roma people,
considered as one of the most significant example of discrimination and stereotypization of an
ethnic group in its relation with the activities of the media.
As underlined by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) which analyzed
the situation of Roma in Europe in a ‘data focus’ report in 2009:
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“Of all the groups surveyed by the FRA, the Roma emerged as the group most vulnerable to discrimination and crime (…). The report on the Roma reveals a bleak picture for the estimated 12 million Roma in the EU. Roma reported the highest overall levels of discrimination across all areas surveyed. 66-92% of Roma (depending on the country) did not report their most recent experience of discrimination to any competent authority. 65-100% of the Roma respondents reported lack of confidence in law enforcement and justice structures”(FRA,EU-MIDIS Report 2009). For these reasons they were chosen by the European Agency as the first group on which to
focus in its EU-MIDIS Report.9
Romani Rose10 confirms these data and perceptions highlighting as “the media plays an
important role in the characterization of racist stereotypes, particularly through the portrayal
of criminals as "Roma" or "Sinti", or other such discriminatory terms in press or television
reports”. In this way, instead of effectively protecting the Roma minorities from
discrimination and racism, many media as well as politicians in different countries of Europe,
still deny the existence of racism and discrimination against them, contributing to “the
dissemination of stereotypes and stirring up antiziganistic feeling in the population” (Romani
2006: 2).
To mention just one example, perhaps the most significant one, although the Porrajmos, the
Romani Holocaust11, during the II World War killed more than a half of Europe's Roma
population, the international community, together with the public opinion, still barely
acknowledged this fact. Nobody was called to testify on behalf of the Romani victims at the
Nuremberg Trials, and no war crimes reparations have ever been paid to Romanies as people.
What is more, there have even been several attempts to diminishing the Porrajmos and to
deny Roma people as being part of the Holocaust and, still today, neo-Nazi activity in many
parts of central and Eastern Europe disseminate through the web racism and hate propaganda
against Roma and Sinti and makes the Romanies its prime target of racial violence. What is
more, attacks increasingly emanate from the security forces themselves and only rarely can
9 EU-MIDIS stands for the “European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey”. It is the first EU-wide survey to ask immigrant and ethnic minority groups about their experiences of discrimination and criminal victimization in everyday life (FRA, EU-MIDIS Report 2009: 2). 10 Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma since 1982 and currently manager of the Documentary and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose is also a member of the directorate of the International Movement against Discrimination and Racism, founded in Tokyo, Japan, in 1988. 11 The Porrajmos (also Porajmos, literally, Devouring in some dialects of the Romani language) is a Romani term introduced by Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock to describe attempts by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia and its allies to exterminate most of the Romani people of Europe as part of the Holocaust. Because the Romani communities of Eastern Europe were less organized than the Jewish, the persecution and murder of the Roma and Sinti has been little studied and largely overshadowed by the Shoah communities and it is also more difficult to assess the actual number of victims, though it is believed to range from 220,000 to 1,500,000.
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the perpetrators expect consistent prosecution and conviction (Hancock 2004: 383-396). As
underlined by the Council of Europe report of 2006, “while anti-Semitism is today, fortunately
condemned at all levels (social and political), anti-Gypsyism is even not recognized as an
existent phenomenon and therefore condemned” and Roma still experience discrimination,
exclusion and persecution in their everyday life (COE, EC 2006: 4).
In many countries there is “neither an awareness of the historical dimension of the crimes of
genocide committed against Roma nor of the present-day racism that Roma and Sinti are
subjected to in many counties of Europe” (Romani 2006: 2).The recent events in the Ponticelli
district of Naples in Italy12, the forced sterilization of Roma women, documented in the Czech
Republic and Slovakia in the recent years13, the discriminatory practice of sending Roma
children to special schools for the mentally handicapped children14, are just some examples of
the present-day discrimination.
Roma are in general mainly described as a "social problem" and are unfairly blamed as the
main responsible for their own misery and marginalization, considered as co-responsible for
their alienation. Even if they have been recognized as a national minority by most of the
European Governments, their legal status appears to be different in the different States of the
Union and their position depends both on the States ratification of international conventions
and on the adoption of domestic and intrastate legislations. Although according to documents
Roma should be considered as a true minority group with specific rights, in some countries
(included Italy), they are still not recognized as a national or linguistic minority.
Furthermore, in the mind of public opinion, they are still associated with homeless “nomads”
in contrasts with the fact that members of this minority group “are citizens of their respective
countries of nationality for many centuries, particularly in Europe”(Romani 2006: 1).In the
common imaginary of people, they are still perceived as pesty, violent, child kidnappers, 12 A violent anti-Roma attack that took recently place in Italy in May 2008: Roma families in Naples fled after angry locals set fire to their squatter homes. 13 Despite a report confirming the continued use of coercive sterilization on Roma (Gypsy) women, women's advocates charge that the Czech government has failed to take action to stop these atrocities. The Czech Health Ministry acknowledges sterilization procedures were not followed properly, but refuses to provide compensation to victims. Furthermore, many hospitals continue to deny that their actions were illegal, claiming medical reasons for sterilization. Advocates for the victims say that the real reason for the practice is racism. In response to their unjust treatment, many Roma women are now taking their cases to court. In 2005, Helena Ferencikova became the first Roma woman to sue the hospital that sterilized her. The District Court of Ostrava in Czech Republic ruled that the hospital should acknowledge malpractice and must issue her a formal apology. The hospital denied Ferencikova’s demand for compensation, and both parties are appealing. Associated Press 6/17/06; Newsdesk.org 6/12/06; European Roma Rights Centre 2/2/06, 3/14/06; Final Statement of the Public Defender of Rights 2005. 14 For further detailed information regarding Roma’s children segregation in schools, please refer to: European Commission, Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity, Unit G2, Segregation of Roma Children in Education. Addressing Structural Discrimination through the Race Equality Directive (2007).
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thieves and other negative stereotypes. It is in fact true that, as underlined by Karin Waringo
during its speech presented at the European Parliament in 2006: “if we think about Roma in
the media we will probably all recall at least one incidence where Roma were portrayed by
media in a particularly loathsome way” (Waringo2006).
This discrimination, often based on ethnic or religious background, is partly linked with an
unfair media description and attitude towards ethnic minorities. Indeed, the European
governments perceived the increase of migration in Western Europe after the fall of
Communism primarily as a problem, which gave rise to many difficulties, a problem with an
“international dimension” (Liegeois, Nicolae 1995: 17).
The situation gave rise at the same time to much discussion and the involvement of the media
in this sense was particularly high: the issue of massive migration of Roma/Gypsies in
Europe, for example, and the relative consequences for local populations, has often been
exaggerated and little or not accurate information has been provided for understanding the
real reasons of these movements. It should be borne in mind that there are different reasons
behind the migration of Roma/Gypsies in Europe, reasons which are often not exclusively
linked to their particular “nomadic lifestyle”, but connected to various forms of persecution:
banishment, expulsion, organized hunts, forced settlement, inter-state agreements dictating
where they can reside. Most often moving is just the only option for Gypsies in order to avoid
persecutions. The 1990s offer a vivid illustration of the push factors involved: physical
attacks, racist pogroms, murders and burnt-out homes. The persecution of Roma in Eastern
Europe did not end with the fall of Communism. In fact, their conditions had improved
somewhat under regimes whose Marxist-Leninist ideologies required the Roma be treated as a
socioeconomic group rather than a race. But when free-market economies replaced state
socialism, the Roma were once again viewed as foreigners.15
The first waves of migrants arrived in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. The
60s assisted to the appearance of migrants coming from the former European colonies, the 70s
was the age of the political refugees, followed by war-refugees in the 80s and 90s and among
them, many Roma people following the collapse of Communism and the recent wars in
Yugoslav and especially in Kosovo. The same period witnessed a massive migration by guest
workers changing the demographic structure of many European countries, which is still going
on. 15 For further detailed information regarding the situation of Roma people in countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, please refer to: Guy, Will, (ed.), (2001), Between past and future. The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, University of Hertfordshire Press.
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Since the early 1990s, Roma people have been the subject of an intense debate, as a
consequence of the rapid social, political and economic changes taking place in Central and
Eastern Europe following the collapse of Communism, the recent wars in Yugoslav and
especially in Kosovo, and the enlargement first of the Council of Europe in the early 1990's,
and then of the EU, having Romania and Bulgaria the last two countries of the former East
Block acceding the European Union on 1 January 2007.
At the same time, an increased concern has arisen with the treatment and protection of
minorities in Europe, whether they are national, ethnic, religious or cultural. The minorities
interests, cultural and political claims, are now officially recognized not only by the most
important European organizations (the European Union, the Council of Europe and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), but also by the legislative
bodies and governments of most European States, even thought the internal legislation of
integration policies and migrant rights differs a lot among the different countries.
However, even if the end of Second War and the fall of the Nazi regime led to a tough
reaction against racism in Europe, the migrant waves of 60s throughout the 90s encountered,
and still encounters, the strong opposition of rightwing, populist parties such as the “Lega
Nord” in Italy, Jörg Haider in Austria, Le Pen in France, the “Deutsche Volks Union” in
Germany, Pim Fortyn in Netherlands and so on.
As concerning Roma, notwithstanding the international mobilitization, discrimination is still
commonly widespread in all the main basic services and sectors of public life: housing, health
care, education, employment, participation to political life, access to law, justice and legal
remedies. In some cases, media have a strong responsibility in discrimination practices while
making use of a racist, discriminatory discourse, depicting ethnic minorities as a danger and a
threat to the entire society and excluding them from the concept of national identity. It has
been empirically proved that media use a racist discourse when they talk about ethnic
minorities, and especially about Roma people: the clear focus of the majority of reports is on
violence, criminality and immigration as a threat to the public safety. Roma are generally
described as a real “enemy within”, as dangerous, natural born criminals, drug dealers; they
are accused of fraud, pick pocketing, stealing babies, thieves and swindlers.
To mention just an example, reported by Valeriu Nicolae in his article, Gypsies are described
as:
“disgusting beings" with "filthy and lewd women" dragging their "broods that shit on themselves" [...] "a living proof we come from monkeys", "hysterical", "cunning", "treacherous", "societal abortions" [...] "those gypsies multiply like rabbits (my apologies to rabbits) only to get their stinky dirty paws on
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the welfare of some poor children [...] the gypsies steal, are rapists."(Valeriu2009: 3).
The excerpt is taken from a Romanian newspaper, Flacara Iasului on 27 and 28 September
2007 and is signed by two members of the Romanian Writers Union, one of whom is the
spokesperson for the museum of literature (Valeriu 2009: 3).
Such racist portrayals and comments are not limited only to the Eastern European’s press but
are broadly diffused also in the Western media. For example in Italy, Roberto Maroni,
Minister of the Interior, following a report on the burning of a settlement of around 100
Romanian in Catania (Sicily), tried to downplay the attacks stating that “this is what happens
when Gypsies steal babies or when Romanians commit sexual violence”.
Roberto Maroni is also the creator of a plan for fingerprinting all Roma residents in camps,
including children, considering this a solution to inadequate housing problems and rising
crime rates in Italy, an action explicitly condemned by Unicef, the European Commission and
the Council of Europe. The European Union parliament in particular, called the fingerprinting
clear racial discrimination and ordered the Italians to stop the process. An assembly resolution
adopted in Strasbourg stated the measure flouts EU human rights treaties and that citizens of
Roma (Gypsy) origin must be treated no differently than those of other ethnic groups, who are
not fingerprinted.
As concerning incidents of hate promotion through Internet/ Facebook, in 2008, as reported
by the EU Observer, the European Parliament's Socialist deputies asked the administrators of
Facebook to remove anti-Gypsy hate groups from its social networking Web site: German
MEP and Socialist group leader Martin Schulz said the groups have links to known fascist
organizations and should be banned from Facebook. Some of the Facebook groups attacking
Roma people, all based in Italy, had names such as "Let's burn them all", "Turn gypsies into
fuel" and "Useful work for gypsies: testers of gas chambers." 16
Furthermore, there is an almost complete absence of mention and analysis concerning the
reasons behind acts of criminality conducted by Roma as well as by other minorities. The
analysis of the context is often completely disregarded (problems such illiteracy, poverty,
social exclusion, discrimination are not taken into consideration). Us underlined by Valeriu in
his article: “The clear focus of most reporting is on criminality, violence, and immigration as a threat to public safety. This causes a biased portrayal of the relation of ethnicity to violence and clearly obstructs other, more important aspects such as social exclusion, hidden violence, forced segregation,
16 Source: United Press International.
14
environment, education, perspective, social class and other possible causes of criminal behaviour” (Valeriu2009: 4). At the same time there is often an undervaluation or no mention at all when Roma are the
victims and not the perpetrators. The accomplishments of many Romani lawyers, doctors,
parliamentarians, university professors and researchers go often completely unnoticed. The
alternative image is a folkloristic, unrealistic and obsolete picture of Roma people, depicted as
free-lovers, hot-tempered, unpredictable people, still providing a distorted and unrealistic
image of Roma people and culture.
3. Media Discourse and Minority Rights.
As broadly underlined in the previous paragraphs of this essay, “media has become the most
important actor in the information age, with an almost unlimited power to define and
communicate messages throughout the society” and to disseminate an image of the country
through “different lines made up from ethnicity, religion, class, territorial borders”(Kianzad
2008: 4).
The most important question however is not how minorities are portrayed by media in local
news but how can media in Western nation states promote a better defense of human rights
for ethnic minorities through the promotion of social cohesion and harmony and an
heterogeneous, multicultural and more realistic picture of a country and national identity.
Media have in fact a choice and are able, through their different practices, either to support or
halt human rights and social cohesion.
Through the use of different reports and statistics and also some examples of media practices
in Italy and Romania, it has been proved how the discrimination and violation of human
rights of ethnic minorities is in part a direct or indirect effect of the biased media portrayals of
those ethnic minorities.
Even though it is difficult to establish a specific link between media practices and human
rights protection, because media in itself are not party to any specific international convention
on human rights; it is clear that states, which are party to those conventions, have to assume
control and responsibility, ensuring the appropriate functioning of media through national
legislations and other government initiatives such as ethic codes for journalists, directives and
punishments. Governments should speak out against any form of violence motivated by racial
hatred, react and punish everyone, including high level politicians, who use discriminating
and contemptuous remarks against Roma. They should investigate and bring perpetrators to
15
justice. Public opinion and civil society should have a role in this process as well; especially
through awareness raising campaigns and educational project, in order to change those
negative perceptions among the population.
At the European level, the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia (FDRX), adopted
by the EU on 19 April 2007, which started to be implemented in 2009, makes any incitement
to racism an EU wide punishable crime and represents a good step forward in this direction. It
foresees between one and three years of imprisonment for anyone who publicly incites racial
hatred and xenophobia, including through the distribution of texts, photos or other material
directed against a group or an individual because of their race, color, religion, nationality or
ethnic origin, or who denies or crudely minimizes genocide, war crimes and crimes against
the humanity. However more should be done especially in order to raise awareness among the
public opinion and change the obsolete and stereotyped public image of ethnic minorities
perceived by the majority population. As recognized by the European Commission among
other major international organizations, and notwithstanding the fact that all EU countries
have transposed the EU Directive on Racial Equality, which prohibits discrimination on the
grounds of racial or ethnic origin, “yet many Roma are still victims of prejudice and deep-
rooted social exclusion”(European Commission, Justice, 2012).
4. Case Study: Roma’s Minorities in Italy.
After visiting Roma settlements in Italy, Viktória Mohacsi, an Hungarian Roma member of
the European Parliament, wrote in her report entitled Journey across the Italy of racial
hatred:
“I traveled around the whole of Europe to analyze and observe conditions in Roma camps. I never saw such a degree of human rights violations as that which my people are subjected to by the Italian government. In addition to poverty, inequality and segregation, I witnessed ethnic operations similar to those of the Third Reich. The authorities take children away from their parents through iniquitous means to prevent Roma families from living in Italy and raising their children there” (Cerino 2009).
These words might seem over-exaggerate, but they reflect quite concretely the reality of
Roma conditions in Italy where racism and discrimination reach sometimes even the highest
political levels.
For example, in an act of complete disregard for the grim historical echoes prompted by mob
violence, camp clearances, arbitrary arrest and deportations, ethnic profiling and the
fingerprinting of Romani children, Franco Frattini, former vice president of the European
16
Commission responsible for "Justice, Freedom and Security", and former Italian foreign
minister, chose the occasion to defend the emergency measures and present himself as the
saviour of Romani children. In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz he said: "Hundreds
of [Roma] children have asked us to fingerprint them so that we could give them temporary
papers [...] these children must be protected. By giving them papers, I am actually saving
them" (Primor 2010).
Roberto Maroni, former Minister of the Italian Interior, asked the judge who suspended the
sentence against two Roma women accused in Lecco (Italy), of trying to steal a child, to
consider changing her job and had strong words for the Roma.
The prefect of Rome, Carlo Mosca, in declaring his intent to sign expulsion orders without
hesitation, told the press that “the hard line was necessary” to deal with “these beasts”
(Human Rights First, 2008: 111) and unfortunately, there are many more examples like these
(some of them already previously mentioned in this essay).
The situation of Roma in Italy is indeed frightening: as victims of all sorts of discriminations
they do not benefit from any kind of support and protection by the State, which remain
indifferent and passive to the difficulties Roma encounter in their daily life.
The conditions of Roma people worsened even more after the spring of 2008, following an
increase of racist movements, accompanied by a multiplication of legislative measures with
discriminatory character (Human Rights First, 2008: 111). A violent anti-Roma incident took
recently place in Italy in May 2008: in the Ponticelli district, in Naples a Roma girl was
accused of trying to snatch a child. After that episode, on 10 May 2008, the intolerance of the
population towards the nomads, who had been living for years on the periphery of the city,
has become more and more violent, supported by the popular and racist propaganda of the
Lega Nord (northern league) political party. In the days following the supposed kidnap
attempt, numerous attacks were carried out against the Roma. Of the thirteen Roma camps
that stood on the periphery of Naples in May 2008, only three remained, maybe four. 17
As observed in the Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, in 2007:
“There is a lack of readily accessible data and information – from both official and unofficial sources – on the extent and nature of racist violence and crime in Italy. While this gap is consistent with previous years, it is worth underlining that 2007 saw a disturbing escalation of the negative role played by the media and prominent representatives of public institutions and political leaders in 17 For more detailed information please refer to: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Incident Report – Violent Attacks Against Roma in the Ponticelli district of Naples, Italy, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2008.
17
disseminating prejudice, stereotypes and racist ideas. Against this background, a range of extreme right-wing political parties and organizations currently exist in Italy that variously promote anti-immigrant sentiments. The range of opinions expressed both within and between different right-wing xenophobic movements appears at times both contradictory and confusing; however, the cement that holds these various parties and organizations together is a strong xenophobic stance. The murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian Roma immigrant led to widespread public outburst of xenophobia by both media and prominent politicians against Romanian immigrants in general and Romanian Roma in particular. There are also a number of skinhead groups in existence in Italy, such as Veneto Fronte Skinheads and the Azione Skinheads. NGOs indicate that acts of racist aggression and violence, alongside specifically anti-Semitic acts of intimidation, are carried out by these skinhead groups” (Doudou 2007).
At the same time, the behavior of public authorities is characterized by either a complete
absence of action or by the adoption of various legal measures and policies obviously limiting
individual freedoms and rights of this ethnic minority.
The lack of action in public policies is visible from the fact that no law has been elaborated so
far taking into account the special situation and conditions of Roma people and nothing was
done in order to improve their miserable life conditions.
On the other side the adoption of various legal measures such as the ongoing ‘census’ of the
Romani population and the transportation of Roma people to special camps far away from the
city centers in order to ‘sanitize’ them, are clearly directed at discriminating Roma people.
Growing fear and hatred of Roma among the general population, on the one hand, and the
hostile approach of the national government and some local administrations on the other
hand, creates a witch-hunt atmosphere directed against even long-established Romani and
Sinti Italian citizens.
Even though Italy is not the only country where problems concerning Roma people are
widespread, what makes it unique is the fact that Italian Government at its highest level has
made a policy of promoting racial animosity and xenophobia: in particular, discriminatory
policies are carried out by political authorities with the support of the media, transmitting only
the negative side of the situation.
Roma people are not acknowledged as a true minority group with their own specific needs
and in the meantime their life and the conditions in which the live are degrading even more:
Roma reach growing levels of poverty and the fields where they live, mostly illegal, are badly
equipped: they lack basic public services such as water, electricity, sewerages, having a high
degree of insecurity and increasing mortality.
Most of Roma do not have documents; identification or permit to stay and it is indeed very
difficult for them to acquire the Italian citizenship. One of the most tragic consequences of
this situation is that their children are stateless and it is becoming even more difficult for them
18
to receive education (ECRI 2006).The health care system is of increased concern as well and
the spread of illnesses is very easy as far as they do not receive any vaccination and medical
care.
The state is still the one held responsible to respect fundamental rights in its own territory but
the transfer of responsibilities to the local level do not exclude the government of any
obligation to seek that the strategies are effectively applied and that the municipalities dispose
of the necessary resources.18
In May 2008, the situation in Italy was taken under control by a nongovernmental coalition
including the Open Society Institute, the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, the
European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Romani Criss, and the Roma Civic Alliance in
Romania. The resulting report, ‘Security a la Italiana’, found a dramatic rise in both the
frequency and gravity of attacks to Roma since the government of Silvio Berlusconi took
office. The report stated that Italian authorities had “failed to condemn acts of violent
aggression against Roma and not one person has yet to be held legally accountable for at
least 8 incidents of anti-Romani pogroms leading to the razing of Romani camps with
Molotov cocktails in Italy” (OSI 2008). The intensity of the recent anti-Roma violence in Italy
should raise awareness regarding the minority issue in all of Europe. (Human Rights First,
2008: 115).
5. Conclusions, recommendations and proposals for action.
As underlined by the European Commission in its report on ‘Racism, Xenophobia and the
Media, Towards respect and understanding of all religions and cultures’: “Open and inclusive dialogue is the best way to address the challenge of racism and xenophobia and to promote freedom of expression on the one hand and respect for religious beliefs on the other” (EC, EUMC 2006: 3)19.
Media in Western nation states have an important role as far as they can facilitate the full
enjoyment of human rights for ethnic minorities by promoting a more heterogeneous and
pluralistic picture of a country, society and national identity. 18 Human Rights Commissioner to the Council of Europe, Final report on the situation regarding human rights of Roma, Sinti and Travellers in Europe, 15/02/2006, CommDH(2006), paragraph 59. 19 European Commission, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Austrian Presidency of the European Union, (2006). Racism, Xenophobia and the Media, Towards respect and understanding of all religions and cultures. An EU Seminar in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Vienna 22-23 May 2006, Conference Report & Documentation.
19
More precisely media should report in “a more comprehensive and balanced way on issues
that have an impact on ethnicity, race and religion while respecting freedom of expression
and editorial independence” through promoting:
“- A better representation of minorities in newsrooms through targeted training and recruitment; - More diversity in mainstream and non-fiction programmes; - Making training in intercultural understanding a standard component of journalist education; - Networking and sharing of information and best practice among media from different regions (twinning and exchange programmes, training, forums and regular contact); - More dialogue between ethnic, religious and cultural groups and the media to improve the quality of reporting, to be fully aware of the sensitivities around intercultural relations, and to avoid negative stereotyping and language inciting to hatred; - Improved self-regulation and more own initiatives by media to promote ethical and professional standards in reporting; - A greater emphasis on comprehensive reporting, including minority voices and highlighting positive intercultural initiatives and examples of good practice; - Continued European level support for intercultural dialogue and inter- faith initiatives; - A forum for media owners to discuss racism, xenophobia and related issues and the impact of media reporting on intercultural relations”.(EC, EUMC 2006: 6).
It should be clear that freedom of expression and the mutual understanding and respect for the
cultures and religions of others are not incompatible but complementary.
The media is also our major ally in further developing a broad public awareness about how
cultural differences enrich our societies and everyday life: reflecting cultural diversity in
mainstream programmes, employing journalists of different cultural backgrounds and inter-
cultural training of journalists, can reinforce this positive role that the media can play.
In this framework, it is also important to recognize that minority rights should supplement
individual human rights mechanisms. This has been recognized to some extent also by the
European human rights system. It has been proven in fact that individual rights violations
have arisen from the rejection of collective rights (O’Nions 2007: 33): that is why the latter
should be regarded as a supplement. The protection of human rights in general and minority
rights in particular is necessary to promote international and regional security and to prevent
ethnic conflicts and tensions and the terms “minority rights” and “human rights” should be
considered as not contradictory but complementary.
Positive obligations of the state alongside with negative obligations, non-interference,
protection of individual as well as collective rights, should be all considered for the safeguard
of minorities. This is even more necessary nowadays when we are experiencing a change in
model of our society switching from the old concept of nation-state to societies that are
always more multiethnic. The issue of minority rights becomes fundamental to preserve the
20
stability and prosperity of the multireligious/multicultural modern Nation-State system. That
is the reason why, as underlined by Dersso in his article, a new “multicultural conception of
minority rights” is necessary, namely a new conception of a modern multiethnic state
composed of different overlapping ethnic groups and opposite to the classical concept of
Nation-State. Collective rights as well as liberal individual rights and entitlements are
necessary, that is to say not only a general negative principle of non-discrimination against
minorities but also positive actions in order to guarantee them with full participation in social
life and political decision-making, a recognition of minority cultures through institutions and
symbols of the state and a more equilibrate distribution of resources (Dersso, 2007: 10).
The thesis is that, since we are living in a time of multiculturalism and globalization where
largely homogenous societies are becoming ethnically diverse; a new, inclusive definition of
national identity is required, which recognizes members of minorities as an integral part of the
whole and not as simply “others” or inside-outsiders. Such measures are necessary for the
benefit of the whole society in order to effectively resolve ethnonational conflicts and issues
of political power distribution.
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