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Sinaia, Romania
June 27-28, 1997
Preface
The role of the mass media in shaping perceptions, attitudes, and understandings has been well documented. The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) has been acutely aware of the interrelations between the media and those portrayed by the media, for the tone and character of these relationships play an important part in interethnic relations. Particularly with respect to minorities and those seeking to overcome the history of misunderstandings born of negative and stereotypical imagery, this is an area where there is a dire need for open and honest communication.
It is the practice of PER to organize and facilitate dialogues between parties that normally find it difficult to meet face-to-face without the presence of an impartial third party. In keeping with this practice, PER co-sponsored a seminar in Prague in September 1996 that brought together Romani elites and journalists and a small number of non-Romani journalists from the mainstream media of several countries in the region (see the PER report, The Media and the Roma in Contemporary Europe: Facts and Fictions). Subsequently, representatives of the Romani community in Romania asked PER to provide an opportunity for considering the questions raised at the seminar in the circumstances specific to Romania. Romani elites in that country strongly believe that a large segment of the media presents a false picture of the Roma, and they have accused the media of in effect fomenting violence against the Roma.
The workshop that is the subject of this report was PER's response to that request. It was held in Sinaia, Romania, from June 27 to June 28, 1997, in cooperation with the Department for the Protection of National Minorities of the Romanian Government and with the Roma Center for Social Intervention and Studies (Rromani CRISS), a nongovernmental organization in Romania. Partial funding was provided by the Confidence-Building Measures Programme of the Council of Europe. The participants were Romani elites and journalists, non-Romani journalists in Romania, and journalists from media in other countries. A list of participants appears at the end of the report.
Questions such as these were the subject of discussion: Who is responsible for the often negative image of the Roma in some of the Romanian media? Is it biased coverage by journalists, or does the Romani community fail to provide accurate information to the media, forcing journalists to rely on information received from the police press bureaus? Can journalists develop a "code of ethics" concerning the communication of information about ethnic minorities in general and about Roma in particular? What possibilities are there for cooperation between the mainstream and the Romani media?
The goal of the workshop was to share the experiences of Western and other media professionals in dealing with the problems of reporting that involves ethnic content and to stimulate a continuing discussion of those problems, looking toward the establishment of informal mechanisms of evaluation and the promotion of professionalism.
The workshop led to several concrete outcomes: the formation of a "Contact Point" between the Romani community and the media, which will provide the media with information from and about the community and will organize monthly dialogues between the two parties, and the initiation of internships for young Romani journalists at two of the leading Romanian dailies. In addition, PER's Bucharest office will hold monthly workshops for journalists aimed at developing standards to help avoid ethnic stereotyping in the media.
This report was prepared for PER by Jennifer Tanaka, consultant to Rromani CRISS. It was edited by Warren Haffar, PER program officer, and Robert A. Feldmesser, PER's senior editor. The participants have not had an opportunity to review the text, which is thus PER's responsibility alone.
Livia B. Plaks, Executive Director
Princeton, New Jersey
October 1997
A Note on Terminology
Gypsy is an English term used to denote ethnic groups formed by the dispersal of commercial, nomadic and other groups from within India from the tenth century, and their mixing with European and other groups during their diaspora.* The term Gypsy and the several European variants of Tsigan are considered by many to be pejorative.
Rom refers to a member of the group.
Roma refers to a plurality of members and to the group as a whole.
Romani refers to the language spoken by the Roma. It is also used as an
adjective.
Introduction
The role and impact of the mass media are often emphasized in discussions of violence and discrimination against the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Although these problems are not unique to that region, they have special importance there now because of the vast economic, social, and political transformations that are propelled by the move toward the principles of democracy, freedom of speech, and civil rights.
The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) has been engaged in a continuing effort to identify practical and durable ways of overcoming the negative portrayal of Roma in the mass media. The workshop whose proceedings are presented in this report was part of that effort. It was held in Sinaia, Romania, from June 27 to June 28, 1997, and it concentrated on the situation in Romania. The hope was that the focus on a single country would allow the problems to be addressed in greater detail, leading to the building of confidence between journalists and Romani elites, hitherto adversarial groups, and thence to the development of approaches to the resolution of disputes.
Before the workshop began, a number of documents were distributed to the
invited participants. Some of these were prepared specifically for the
workshop; others were outgrowths of previous activities organized by PER or
by Rromani CRISS. The documents were: (1) a report of a study of the press
coverage of Roma in the 1996 general elections; (2) a thematic analysis of
the texts of articles concerning Roma from six daily newspapers during the
periods May 19-25 and June 2-7, 1997; (3) analysis of the use of the terms
"Rom" and "Tigan" in articles appearing in thirteen newspapers between March
21 and June 19, 1997; and (4) a proposal for a Romani press agency.
Setting the Framework
Three presentations were made at the outset of the workshop. The first of these was by William Pfaff, a journalist with the International Herald Tribune and a member the PER Council for Ethnic Accord. He dealt with the origins and evolution of ethnic nationalism, secular nationalism, and the liberal state. Ethnic nationalism, he contended, endangers the very definition of "citizen" when the nature of citizenship becomes such that persons are individually marked by birth and their place in the state is inseparable from the community into which they were born. When members of different ethnic groups are then present within the borders of a state, extreme manifestations of ethnic nationalism appear, such as "ethnic cleansing," leading to the violent expulsion of the members of some ethnic minorities.
On the other hand, in the context of the secular nationalism of a liberal state, nationality typically rests on cultural and historical bases and acknowledges the importance of personal identity, and the concept of citizenship is constrained by the underlying principle of equality without regard to ethnic or racial group. In the liberal state, journalists bear the responsibility of reporting from a detached standpoint, so that they can clarify ideas and make objective and nondiscriminatory analyses of events. They must also be conscious of the dangers of propagating ideas that may be detrimental to any group of citizens, because "ideas may manufacture facts."
The next presentation was by Dan Pavel of the Bucharest office of PER, who gave an overview of the history of nationalist thought in Romania in the second half of the twentieth century. Following the Communist takeover, official propaganda integrated Romanian nationalism with communism. Since the overthrow of the Ceausescu government in 1989, the idea has been put forth in academic circles that civil society contains three main strata: civic, non-civic, and anti-civic. The civic stratum is the one that may be considered "natural;" it is characterized by pluralism, widespread participation, and observance of human rights. The non-civic stratum consists chiefly of Mafia-type organizations, and the anti-civic stratum refers to nationalist groups and religious fundamentalists. Thus, the question arises, "What can we do so that the civic component evolves as the dominant one"?
The third presentation was by another member the PER Council for Ethnic Accord, Nicolae Gheorghe, the coordinator of Rromani CRISS and a member of the PER Romani Advisory Council as well. He described the Roma as going through a process of "ethnogenesis"--constructing a new Romani group identity, as other groups had done in the nineteenth century. The present goal, especially in Romania, is to upgrade the status of members of the community from "Tigan" to "Roma," symbolic of the move from "slaves" to equal status as citizens in a state governed by the rule of law, with the right to identify themselves as belonging to the Romani minority.
Gheorghe pointed out that there was diversity among the Roma, reflected in different ideas about how Romani ethnic identity should be combined with the construction of democratic political institutions. One possibility is for the Roma to affirm their identity in the context not of a particular state but of a "European identity," perhaps represented by such bodies as the European Union and the Council of Europe. This would be consistent with the situation of the Roma as a stateless nation, dispersed throughout Europe and other parts of the world. The most recent censuses in Central and Eastern Europe (1990-1992) show that Romania has the largest population of Roma. One interesting finding of a study made for Rromani CRISS by Radu Halus of the Romanian National Commission for Statistics shows that the proportion of the total estimated Romani population in that country who declared themselves to be Roma increased between 1977 and 1992.
However, the geographical dispersion of the Roma is only one element in their pluralism. Actually, the Roma are a multicultural people, with different religions, geographical zones of mobility, and cultures, including different languages, in the form of both Romani dialects and the official languages of the states in which they reside. The construction of an identity that would take into account all of these differences presents formidable problems.
But there is one commonality among the Roma: They are all looked upon as "foreigners." Similar to the historical experience of the Jews, the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe have been perceived as outsiders in their own countries, a perception that has been based largely on beliefs about "race." In the mass media, Roma are often referred to as "colored" or "dark-skinned," and they are frequently described as possessing "inherent" deviant behavioral patterns. Violence against Roma has sometimes taken the form of "ethnic cleansing," in which Romani families have been evicted from the villages in which they were living and their homes have been burned down.
Andrzej Mirga, Chairman of the PER Romani Advisory Council, commented that
the Roma are currently confronted with several basic issues concerning their
historical legacy and their future prospects, both of which are involved in
their high rates of unemployment and low levels of education. Moreover,
since 1989, Roma have become the main scapegoat in many countries of Central
and Eastern Europe, creating new barriers which must be overcome, both by
the Roma themselves and by the societies with which they coexist. (See the
PER publication, The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper.)
Studies of the Romanian Mass Media
The press coverage of conflicts between Roma and members of the majority in four Romanian communities was analyzed in a study coordinated by Ion-Andrei Popescu of the Institute of Studies and Polls ESOP OMEGA. Some of the findings are presented here, and a fuller summary appears as an appendix to this report. The incidents studied took place in the Bolintin area, 1991; Hadareni, 1993; Bacu, 1995; and Tanganu, 1997. Two of them were rather large-scale conflicts that resulted in the destruction of the majority of the Romani homes in an attempt to evict them from the villages. In Bacu, two Romani bystanders were wounded by gunshots following an altercation between some Roma and non-Roma and the burning of three Romani homes. The police intervened by guarding the Romani homes that had been involved in the altercation, but non-Romani villagers attacked other Romani homes that were not being guarded. In the other incidents, members of the majority population gathered and threatened to attack the Romani men from the village and burn their houses, but the flight of the Roma and the intervention of police forces prevented further escalation of the conflict.
One finding of the study was that, over the six years between the first and last of the incidents, the Roma were increasingly characterized by negative attributes, while the non-Roma and their actions were increasingly presented in positive terms. Another change was that, during the first two incidents, emphasis was on the malfunctioning of the justice system, the perceived failure to punish the allegedly criminal behavior of the Roma, whereas in the last two, emphasis was on the "unlawful" behavior of the Roma themselves. Still another change was that fear among the groups involved was reported on during the first two incidents but went unmentioned in the coverage of the last two.
The study also found a change in attitudes toward the social integration of the Roma. In the first two events, blame was largely placed on the inability of society to absorb the members of the Romani minority. In the last two, society was no longer held to be at fault; rather, it was the Roma themselves who were considered responsible for the lack of integration, intimating that it was because of their "complacency."
A change was observed in the sources of information for the stories as well. The 1991 incident brought forth a wide variety of articles, many of which were largely speculative. Later, there was greater use of official sources and local documentation. Especially noteworthy is the increase in the journalists' use of police jargon, sometimes repeating verbatim terms found in the police inspectorate's press releases--"Gypsy, without occupation," "with (or without) penal antecedents," "with (or without) legal domicile in locality," "known criminal," etc.
Finally, except for some of the stories in 1991, the journalistic discourse
harped on the differences between the majority and the Roma--"we" and
"they." This approach could be described as a kind of "interpretive scheme,"
in which the behavior of the majority was treated with understanding and
compassion, in contrast to the shameless and incorrigible conduct of the
Roma.
The Portrayal of the Roma and Crime in the Mass Media
In a number of cases of anti-Romani violence, members of the majority community justified their behavior, in part, by the alleged failure of law-enforcement officials to take appropriate steps when members of the Romani community committed illegal acts. This led them to engage in what they called "popular justice"--evicting Roma from their villages, including some who were not accused of any crimes. However, it was pointed out that police forces now intervene more promptly to prevent violence and that the frequency of this kind of violence has decreased since 1993.
One Romani participant suggested that there might be a relationship between the reduced number of outbreaks of violence and an increase in information about "Gypsy crime," especially about the apprehension of "Gypsy criminals." That is, the police may be letting the majority population know that "Gypsy criminals" are being caught and punished.
Other Romani participants pointed out the other side of this coin: that the image of the Roma in the Romanian mass media is one of criminals. Studies of the media have borne out this contention. In 1997, six national newspapers were monitored for articles about the Roma between May 19 and 25 and June 2 and 7. During the first of these periods, 11 such articles were published, and every one of them made some reference to criminality. During the second period, there were 21 articles, of which 11 were about criminality. Similarly, in an analysis of articles in four daily newspapers between May 1 and June 20, 1997, there were 69 articles, and 36 of them (52 percent) had the theme of criminality. (It was later pointed out that these articles had failed to note that the source of their information was police press releases--a serious violation of journalistic ethics.)
In another study, conducted by the Intercultural Institute in Timisoara as part of a project on "the role of the press in harmonizing interethnic relations" (funded by the Council of Europe and the Soros Foundation for an Open Society), the frequency of various categories of key words in articles about the Roma in newspapers in three Romanian cities was noted for the period from May 1995 to April 1996. For two newspapers from Timisoara, the most frequently occurring category had to do with "color of skin;" the second most frequently occurring category was "infraction." In one Bucharest newspaper and two from Constanta, the two most frequent categories were "Romani ethnicity" and "infraction." In another Bucharest newspaper, the most frequent categories were "Romani ethnicity" and "group."
Participants pointed out that this image of the Roma as criminals--made vivid with such terms as "Gypsy Mafia" and "gang of dangerous Gypsies"--breeds fear in the majority population. Furthermore, reporting the ethnicity of Romani criminals and suspects when it has no relevance to the story implies that there is a definite relationship between being Roma and being a criminal or a "Mafioso." One Romani participant said that the media coverage presents criminality as "a Romani problem," neglecting to mention the economic difficulties (such as lack of income, of social assistance, and of land) that may be the real source of crime.
The moderator remarked that newspapers must take into account what sells, and unfortunately, bad or negative news often sells better than good or positive news. But an example was given to show that mistakes can be avoided. German newspapers reported that a "Polish Mafia" was responsible for car thefts in Germany. There were protests from Poland, and the result was that the newspapers began to say, only when it was relevant, that "some of the leaders were persons of Polish origin."
Romanian television recently aired a special report on the question of whether there really was a "Gypsy Mafia," in the sense of an organized criminal group. The head of the department that produced the report said that it was made with the collaboration of a young Romanian Rom and included members of the Romani community. Nevertheless, it was criticized by some Roma because it showed footage taken at an annual celebration of the Kalderash tribe showing well-known Roma without their consent. One of them claimed that the film implied incorrectly that his family and the Kalderash community were engaged in criminal activity, and he demanded a retraction. The issue has not yet been resolved.* (It was pointed out that, in Poland, the family could sue the producers of the report.)
The use of the term "Mafia" was a major topic of discussion at the workshop. Romani participants, and some of the journalists, said that the mere use of a gun or knife in a criminal act does not constitute "organized crime." However, one of the journalists replied that the term "Gypsy Mafia" was not different from such other terms as "Chinese Mafia" and that organized crime can be of different types--economic, financial, or juridical. He asked what journalists were supposed to do when there was a case of organized crime. One response was to follow the example from Poland that had been cited earlier: Write about "persons belonging to the Romani minority" rather than "the Gypsy Mafia."
A participant from the press office of the Romanian police expressed his
belief that the role of the media is to act as a mirror of society, and thus
the problem was "not how the mirror reflects but what stands in front of
it." A journalist put it more bluntly, saying that the cause of the negative
image of Roma in the mass media is the behavior of Romani persons, in
Romania and abroad. The moderator pointed out that journalists have a
professional responsibility to present an objective and balanced picture.
That may sometimes require writing things that the public may not want to
hear, such as refuting a stereotype. He added that the more liberal the
society is, the easier it is for a journalist to act in a professional
manner.
The Role of the Police
As noted earlier, the police are an important source of information for Romanian journalists. An example was given of a recent report on statistics about crime in May 1996 and May 1997 that had been prepared by the Department of Informatics and Operative Evidence of the General Police Inspectorate. The report stated that, among the 21,825 perpetrators and accomplices who had been apprehended in May 1997, "2,232 are minors, 8,638 are youth, 331 are foreigners, 1,983 are Roma" These figures were then published in a Romanian daily.
A participant noted that Rromani CRISS had been studying the press releases of the Bucharest police and the General Police Inspectorate and had observed that persons accused of crimes might be identified as "Gypsy" or "Romani" but not as "Romanian" or "Hungarian." In some of the press releases given to the organization, however, the ethnic identification of the perpetrator had been blacked out.* The press releases also included the address of the suspect and information regarding occupation and past criminal record.
Romani participants expressed concern about the studies of "Gypsy crime" by the Romanian police department. The historical dangers of crime studies based on ethnicity, as illustrated by the case of Nazi Germany, were brought to attention by the recent appearance of Gypsies: The Unknown Next to Us, a book written by a researcher in the Ministry of the Interior. The book concerns the "crime phenomenon within the Gypsy minority" and is used as training material in the Romanian Police Academy. One Romani participant said that, in addition, the press may be manipulated by some state interests, such as the Ministry of the Interior's campaign against corruption.
A representative of the press office of the Bucharest police acknowledged that the police records of all recorded crimes in the country included information on nationality along with information on such other characteristics as gender, age, and occupation. He insisted that separate data were not kept for Roma, although the information could be sorted on the "nationality" field. When asked about the relevance of nationality data, he responded that it was in the interest of society, of sociological studies, and of crime prevention through the identification of possible accomplices. Indeed, he said that his office had been criticized when it tried to present information about crime without such details and that police departments in other countries publish statistics regarding nationality and crime (though others pointed out that it is illegal to do so in some countries). In any case, he said, it was his opinion that the police press office should provide all data to the media and leave the interpretation to them.
Other participants said that the collection of data on the ethnicity of criminals and suspects, even in order to facilitate the apprehension of accomplices, is a form of discrimination; that the prevention of crime must yield to the prevention of discrimination; and that there would be no opposition to the publication of information about the ethnicity of a criminal or suspect when it was relevant to the story.
The basis on which ethnicity is determined was also discussed. The police
representative said that, in his department, ethnicity or nationality was
determined in the same way that it is in the census: by the individual's
response to a question on a standard form. Others suggested that a written
declaration would be better, because it was not certain that the individual
had in fact identified himself or herself. Romani participants agreed that
persons are Roma only if they choose to declare themselves as such.
Access to Romani Communities
One of the principle problems raised by the non-Romani journalists was a lack of communication between the Roma and the media. Even in the presence of a readiness to publish positive news about Roma-related issues, Romani communities are closed to journalists. Other minority groups provided information on a regular basis, but Romani sources did so only rarely. Yet if more information came from the Roma themselves, journalists would be less dependent on information from the police. If nothing else, facilitation of journalists' access to Romani communities would diversify their sources of information. One journalist complained that even in situations of conflict, it was difficult to make contact with Romani community members. Also, however, readers were generally more interested in the response of the local authorities.
One journalist said that her magazine had experienced a negative reaction when it published special material on the Roma. Readers in the majority community were not motivated to buy the issue when they read on the cover page that there was an article inside concerning the Roma. In fact, some readers said that they would cancel their subscriptions if the magazine continued to cover this subject.
Some of the journalists spoke of a need for a more structured organization and diplomatic leadership in the Romani communities. Clearer political platforms were also needed. There would be both greater press coverage and wider public interest if there were stronger evidence that the Roma were an ethnic group with specific political problems and political influence.
One of the participants questioned the extent of "modern" political thinking among the Roma. In the discussion that followed, it was generally agreed that the emergence of an increasing number of Romani organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, some with clear political agendas, was evidence of the spread of "political thinking" among Roma. However, some expressed doubts that this was "modern" thinking, for there was so far only a minimal number of Romani parliamentarians. The situation was described as one in a process of development.
Some non-Romani participants questioned the impact of the Romani
participants on the rank-and-file members of the Romani communities. They
expressed the hope that whatever practical solutions might be identified
would reach beyond the Romani intelligentsia.
The Romani Media
Another important topic of discussion was the distribution, audience, and funding of the Romani media. One of the Romani participants remarked that the Romani communities had only a limited capacity for raising funds, whether through increased readership or by raising funds from other sponsors. Another participant pointed out that the editor in chief of the Romani newspaper that is supported by the state is a political personage, which restricts the scope of the news that it reports.
Some Romani participants said that there was a need for more television and radio programs aimed at Romani audiences, since these would attract more people than newspapers do. Others insisted that there should nevertheless be a nationwide, daily Romani newspaper. But were there enough qualified Roma to produce professional-caliber newspapers and radio and TV programs? This was an area in which non-Romani journalists could cooperate with members of the Romani community, although there has been some training of Romani youth in radio reporting.
In the course of the workshop, the proposal was made that a Romani press agency be created to increase the flow of information from Romani communities to the mainstream mass media. Such an agency could establish a network of correspondents who would send information daily to a central agency, which would in turn send the information on to its subscribers. Reaction from the non-Romani journalists was positive, provided that the cost was low enough and the information was presented in a professional manner. One journalist declared that this kind of resource would be more useful than any number of Romani newspapers with limited audiences.
Although some participants said that Romani elites have insisted that Romani
issues be covered by Romani journalists, others maintained that Roma must
present their points of view through the mainstream media if they wish to
have an impact on their own image. Thus, there needs to be more interaction
between Romani and non-Romani journalists. Indeed, Romani journalists could
have a particularly great impact on the image of the Roma by working for the
mainstream media. To achieve that goal, they must have the training and
skills that will enable them to compete with others in the field.
Proposed Solutions
The discussion of possible solutions for the problems that had been examined rested on an agreement about the importance of identifying common interests between journalists and the Roma. One such interest was that of professionalism, which pointed toward an increased flow of information from Romani elites to the mainstream media, on the one hand, and, on the other, a greater sensitivity among mainstream journalists to the type of information that reinforces the stereotypes of Roma. A significant step toward increasing the flow of information came with the announcement of the establishment of a Contact Point, to be funded by PER and the Council of Europe, between Romani associations and the press.
Another suggestion was for a law on data protection, which could limit the provision of information from official sources about the nationality of individuals. A similar suggestion was for a code of ethics, which might be built upon a compilation of codes of journalistic ethics from other countries.
Several participants pointed to the need for strong Romani media. A journalist offered an internship to two Romani individuals, which would give them an opportunity to practice writing articles and to learn how a newspaper functions.
Finally, Rromani CRISS invited journalists to a press conference to be held the following week concerning the recently issued report, The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper, by Andrzej Mirga and Nicolae Gheorghe the PER Romani Advisory Council.
There was agreement among the participants that contact and dialogue should
continue, moving to more specific matters and cooperative solutions and
contributing to the process of building mutual trust and confidence.
Conclusions
The workshop at Sinaia was a continuation of PER's efforts to improve communication and cooperation between ethnic communities and the mass media. The participation of a larger number of mainstream journalists on this occasion than was the case at the preceding workshop in Prague proved useful in enlarging and facilitating the discussion.
The workshop succeeded in providing an open forum for a specific discussion
of the complex relationships between the Romani communities and their
portrayal in the Romanian mass media. However, the issues involved are not
unique either to the Roma or to Romania. Questions of objectivity and
professionalism in the media are universal and of increasing importance. As
the rights of free speech are expanding, new opportunities are being created
for fostering effective communication and mutual understanding among people
of different ethnic identities. These opportunities must not be missed.
Appendix
Following is a summary of a study of the press coverage of incidents of community violence between Romani and non-Romani groups in four Romanian towns. The study was coordinated by Ion-Andrei Popescu of the Institute of Studies and Polls ESOP OMEGA, Bucharest.
The incidents studied occurred in the Bolintin area, 1991; Hadareni, 1993;
Bacu, 1995; and Tanganu, 1997. Two hundred and twenty-six articles were
analyzed, with the goal of examining their stereotyping, negative imagery,
and degree of objectivity. The trends over the six-year period will be
discussed under four headings: general themes, attribution of
characteristics, sources of information, and portrayal of group differences.
General Themes
Mentions of the behavior of the majority group appeared to decrease over time, while the frequency of references to the behavior and attitudes of the local Roma increased. Furthermore, concern for distinguishing individual actors from the minority group as a whole decreased. Instead, there was a tendency toward character generalization: Romanians were "good," Roma were "bad."
One constant in the articles was the portrayal of law enforcement as being slow and indifferent. Besides identifying the deficiencies of law enforcement, the articles placed a large part of the responsibility for the disturbances in community life on the unlawful acts of the Roma.
The theme of "interethnic conflict" decreased over time; indeed, it was
completely absent in the coverage of the last two events. Instead, the
articles about the Bacu and Tanganu incidents spoke of an "intracommunity
conflict."
Attribution of Characteristics
Over the course of the coverage of the four incidents, there was an increase in the proportion of negative attributes among all the attributes that were said to characterize the Roma. This negative labeling was made especially noticeable by the failure to differentiate among the causes of the incidents and by the tendency mentioned above to fail to distinguish individual actors from the group as a whole. Conversely, there was a decrease in the proportion of negative attributes accorded to the Romanian members of the community. The anger of the Romanian villagers came to be regarded as legitimate.
The study shows a sharp increase in the frequency of positive statements about the intervention of the police, who were seen as another category of "positive" actors.
In the articles about the Bolintin and Hadareni incidents, there were
tenuous references to vindictive actions on the part of the majority group,
but such references were absent from the coverage of the later Bacu and
Tanganu incidents. For the majority group and the Roma to live together was
portrayed as difficult, if not impossible. In the first two incidents, this
was attributed to the inability of the system to absorb the "marginalized"
Roma; in the last two, it was not the system that was at fault but rather
the Roma themselves, apparently because of their "complacency."
Sources of Information
In the 1991 coverage, many of the articles were of a theoretical nature, with themes such as "the image of the government," "the social integration of the Roma," and the inefficiency of the legal system. Other articles were written locally or dealt with police investigations. However, the use of press agencies or of police press releases was uncommon.
By the time of the second incident, at Hadareni, more than one-third of the
articles used materials and interpretations from the county and general
police press releases. In the last two incidents, a large majority of the
articles were based on sources and documentation from the localities.
Particularly noticeable was the verbatim use of official expressions, such
as "Gypsy, without occupation," "with (or without) penal antecedents," and
"with (or without) legal domicile in the locality."
Portrayal of Group Differences
Except for some of the 1991 articles, coverage of the incidents was marked
by an emphasis on the differences between the Roma and the majority
population. These differences seemed to serve as a kind of "interpretive
scheme" in which the reactions of the majority were treated with
understanding and compassion, even when they went beyond the bounds of the
normal, in contrast to the "shameless" conduct of the Roma. The portrayal of
these differences persisted even when the articles referred to "the Gypsies,
whom the Romanians have nothing against."
Summary of Findings
A certain increase in the level of journalistic professionalism could be
observed over the six-year period covered by this study. News articles
became somewhat less like editorials. Nevertheless, the study also showed
that whether an incident involved organized actions, large numbers of
people, or isolated individuals, the stereotypes of the Roma were the same,
and they supported the perception that the ethnic group as a whole was
culpable.
List of Workshop Participants
Mainstream Romanian media
Gabriela Adamesteanu, 22
Marian Chirion, Press Bureau of the General Inspectorate of Police
Patrick Andre de Hillerin, Academia Catavencu
Laszlo Kallai, Ziua
Camelia Popa, Romania Libera
Razvan Popescu, Romania Television, TVR
Monica Radoi, AR Press
Andrei Ion Remus, PRO TV
Dumitru Secrieru, Press Bureau, Bucharest Police Department
Andrei Zamfirescu, Antenna 1
Romani media
Luminita Cioaba, Neodrom
Florin Cioaba, Neodrom
Ivan Gheorghe, Asul de Trefla
Paun Ialomiteanu, Satra
Vasile Ionescu, Aven Amentza
Foreign media
Konstanty Gebert, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune, PER Council for Ethnic Accord, USA
Other organizations
Carmen Vasile, Rromani CRISS
Nicolae Gheorghe, Rromani CRISS, PER Council for Ethnic Accord
Gyorgy Gyongyver, Department for the Protection of National Minorities Romanian Government
Gabriel Micu, Department for the Protection of National Minorities, Romanian Government
Ion-Andrei Popescu, ESOP OMEGA
Rumyan Russinov, Human Rights Project, Bulgaria
Jennifer Tanaka, Rromani CRISS
Gyorgy Tokay, Department for the Protection of National Minorities, Romanian Government
Project on Ethnic Relations
Livia Plaks, USA
Elena Cruceru, Romania
Andrzej Mirga, Romani Advisory Council, Project on Ethnic Relations
Dan Pavel, Romania