If we are to speak in terms of “black
& white,” then we can say that the Roma are either “‘marginals’
and outcasts who are by definition suspects; they carry the hereditary
gene of criminality” (Eleftherotypia, 22/11/96) or they “entertain
people with their dances and music, impart joy and elation. This is why
people believe that Romanies’ lifestyle is based on merrymaking.” (Cumhyriet,
6/10/96).
However, everything in life, which aims at completion, has its spectrum
of nuances, apart from the binary opposites - black and white. It is therefore
only natural to look for such nuances as regards the Roma. The task is
not easy at all, especially when it comes to the Balkans.
This region presents a number of important factors which predetermine
the complicated character of the overall situation. First and foremost,
all Balkan countries (apart from Greece and Turkey) are former communist
dictatorships, a fact which makes people a priori less sensitive
towards democratic values and human rights. With the collapse of the seemingly
everlasting communist states, a number of grave economic problems came
to the fore. Thus the Roma, who have always been at the bottom of society,
now became completely marginalized. Moreover, they are blamed for everything
- from the worst economic and social problems to the everyday petit crimes.
Keeping in mind all this, maybe it is not that surprising that the Roma
in Bulgaria say that they would give anything to go back in time and live
in communism, because back then they were able to attend school, to work
and to mix up with the “intelligentsia of the country.” The non-Roma, on
the other hand, oftentimes make use of stereotypes. “Don’t play dirty like
a Gypsy” is such a “normal” phrase that even open minded people use it.
This means that prejudice on an everyday level is deeply embedded in people’s
minds. In such a situation, it is not strange that the media (whose aim
is to build and re-enforce notions anyway) have a tendency to “recycle”
prejudicial concepts related to the Roma again and again.
All this is not limited to the ex-communist countries, though. A proof
to this are the numerous examples of “hate speech” against the Roma in
the print and electronic media of free and democratic Greece. Obviously,
bias and prejudice are widespread in the region. They should be combated
with a great deal of patience and determination, so that this negative
tendency be gradually uprooted.
If one turns to the specific instances of stereotypical presentation
of the Roma in the Balkan media, s/he would find that even though the picture
varies from country to country, it is usually deeply embedded in prejudice
and social exclusion.
Occasional positive presentation of the Roma can be seen in the ALBANIAN
and also in the TURKISH media. Thus Gazetta Shquiptare (17/11/96)
dedicates a whole special page to that ethnic group, discussing with concern
the integration of its members in the Albanian society and their desire
to have higher living standards: “Now the Roms do not lead their special
life. Are they going to be assimilated? Though some of them are accommodated
and say ‘Here, in Albania, everything is very nice,’ what about the others.
Do they feel themselves equal citizens?”
When it comes to the other countries, however, things lose their optimistic
promises for an objective, or even, a positive attitude towards this minority.
BULGARIAN
media are particularly hostile towards the Roma. There are constant references
to the ethnic origin of the criminals whenever a crime has been committed
by Roma. [“Gypsies Beat Up Handicapped in Social Welfare Queue”
(Standart, 21/6/98); “Gypsies Swallow Thousands of Turtles.”
(24 Chasa, 10/6/98)]. Apart from that, well known stereotypical
and derogatory images are used both when referring directly to this particular
group or to relationships with external factors (e.g. calling the negotiations
with Macedonia as regards the “language issue” a “Gypsy bargaining,” thus
ascribing a pejorative meaning to the whole process.)
The most pronounced tendency in the media in Bulgaria is for them to
present the Roma criminals as “blood-thirsty sub-humans,” who commit crimes
which no Bulgarian would ever commit. “A Mother was Baked Alive in an
Oven; A Roma Businessman Tortures the Woman for Half a Day, Cuts her Ears”
(24 Chasa, 2/8/95); “Gypsy Boys Chopped Two Old Men with an Ax
for a Lump of Cheese” (168 Chasa, 20/8/95); “A Gypsy Split
the Skull of an Old Woman for Revenge” (24 Chasa, 23/8/95);
“The
Gypsies: Unarmed but hungry and very dangerous; Dark-skinned Bulgarians
took the opportunity of the civil disobedience and made massive raids on
cellars, shops and ware houses; Probably they have become wild with hunger,
and the Gypsies can do things a Bulgarian would never think of doing”
(168 Chasa, 7-13/2/97).
Apart from that the Roma are mocked at for their “ingenious” methods
for making money: “Some years ago the Gypsies in Plovdiv used to make
a lot of money out of road accidents, because it is impossible to prove
that the accident has been staged. Nowadays the blood theater is once again
in fashion. The drivers, who pass by the Gypsy neighborhoods, have to be
particularly attentive.” (24 Chasa, 30/11/96). Their cultural
specificity is also made fun of. “Bulgarians would give anything, their
whole fortune, to pay for their son’s higher education; Mango and Aishe
[popular Roma names] would only just make it through Grade 8 [secondary
school], claim that they have finished high school, jump into a Lincoln,
have five kids and queue up for welfare […] In Faculteta [a
Roma neighborhood] you’ll get a helicopter if you have higher education.
If only we could have made it like them too.” (Noshten Trud,
16-17/6/98).
On the basis of all this, the following conclusion comes almost naturally:
“Every
third offense in Bulgaria is committed by Gypsies; an act of revenge against
the Gypsies on part of Bulgarians , victimized by their attacks.” (Trud,
7/10/95). Still, it is worthwhile to mention that there have been some
positive developments in the last few months. Thus Demokratsia (26/6/98)
had an in-depth study on the stable negative image of the Roma in the media:
“The
implication [in the press]
is that we are helpless victims of all
possible evils, and the most dignified line of action in this situation
would be to sit back and suffer pitifully, merely watching what the Gypsies
are doing. Because, to judge from our press, it is only the Gypsies who
take any action, and this action is abominable.” And last, but not
least, it should be mentioned that all Bulgarian media criticized the ethnic-based
murder of a Roma lady last July. “The woman paid her ‘fault’ of having
been born a Gypsy with her life. A furious teenager punished her because
he had been victimized by Gypsies himself.” (Trud, 27/7/98);
“Bulgarian
children killed a woman because she was different. The day before one could
have afforded to say there was no serious problem. Today it is impossible
to deny this problem.” (Kontinent, 24/7/98).
GREEK media also have a tendency to present the Roma with much
prejudice and negativism. Two particular criminal activities are usually
treated as copyrighted by the Roma. These are drug dealing and trafficking
in babies. The former is represented by the following quotes: “[The
Roma] use even minors as carriers of drugs”; “Roma merchants
of death were caught while delivering big quantities of drugs even to young
15-year-old people and high school students.” “More than 2.5 kilos
of marihuana, 4 grams of heroin, 17 pills of methadone and 814,000 drs.
were found and confiscated in the Roma camping in Halandri.” “In
the past, many clients had been arrested, while the dealers had escaped,
because they used the coverage of their relatives in order to avoid arrest.”
(Adesmeftos Typos 19/4/96).
The selling of babies is condemned by many papers: “Organized Roma
networks used to sell babies in Thessaloniki, with the cooperation of lawyers
and authorities.” (Ethnos 6/6/97); “The city of Thessaloniki
has been turned into a center for the selling of babies. Roma and citizens
from countries of the former Eastern Bloc are involved in this case of
illegal adoptions. The Roma woman Paraskevi Liatifi said, in her apology,
that poverty and necessity for the raising of her other three children
led her to this act.” (Apogevmatini 7/6/97). Rarely the deep
reasons for such a criminal behavior are discussed and analyzed. “The
fact that the Roma are involved in illegal adoptions should not surprise
the public opinion, since it is known that this social group is totally
excluded and doomed to misery.”; “It is also worthwhile to mention
that if a baby is Roma, his/her ‘price’ is usually lower and it amounts
to 3 mill drs.” (Eleftherotypia of Sunday 8/6/97); “The Roma
woman, who had been arrested for participation in the selling of her babies,
declared: ‘I have three more children that I cannot raise.’ The 23rd investigator
decided to detain her in custody. The lawyer who is alleged to be the ‘mastermind’
of the whole network was released after paying a guarantee of 1 mill drs.”
(Adesmeftos Typos, 7/6/97)
It should be kept in mind that regardless of some stereotypical images
which are “recycled” by the press every once in a while, there are also
many neutral references to the Roma. This is true especially when it comes
to describing their cultural traditions and talents. Thus Eleftheros
Typos (5/06/97) announced that “A Roma cultural festival will start
in the area of Agia Varvara under the slogan ‘Athens is a multicultural
city. Meet the Roma!’ The festival promotes the awareness campaign of the
Greek society. According to the president of the older Romani association,
the number of the Greek Roma amounts to 5% of the whole population. The
president claims that it is not true that the Roma do not want to be educated.
The festival includes discussions on racism, a football match, exhibitions
of photographs and books, movies and a concert with the participation of
Roma artists.”
From time to time there are even some openly positive articles. For
example, the shooting of Mr. Manoussakis’ movie “Whispers of the Heart”
about the love story of a Roma woman and a Greek businessman prompted the
media to show concern and sympathy for the “the Roma [because] the
official Greek state has been refusing citizenship to these 300,000 people
for more than 120 years. And in our eyes, the Roma are only colorful skirts,
‘clarinets’ and ‘reading of our fate,’ caricatures and not normal people
with flesh and blood and needs. Still, they live together with us, everywhere
and nowhere. (…) The Roma have always been the most ignored and
neglected of all minorities, only because there were hardly any educated
people among them, people with some access to the system and a voice that
could be used to our powerful codes, in order to be heard. This is why
it was easy for the police, for instance, to intrude without any second
thought (and most important without any warrant) to their homes, looking
for suspects. But now things are becoming different. The Roma are trying
to ignore the majority’s racism and send their kids at school. A brand
new Roma generation is activated with success throughout Europe, with a
view to inform the international community for the culture, the language
and the big difficulties of the Roma brothers” (Ta Nea, 11/2/98).
The situation in ROMANIA is characterized by profound “hate speech”
towards the Roma. The latter are presented as criminals who tend to asocial
behavior. Thus the public is led to believe that all Roma are criminals
and dishonest people who cannot be trusted: “A group of dangerous Gypsies
kidnapped a citizen of Bucharest whom they kept in terror for 5 hours”
(Jurnal National, 23/11/96); “Under the terrified eyes of his
nine children, the Gypsy Pavel Varga killed his wife and hung the body
to simulate suicide.” (Evenimentul Zilei, 27/1/97); “Seven
police officers were attacked with knives and axes by a group of Gypsies,
because they didn’t want to set free the Gypsies’ friends who had stolen
wood” (Evenimentul Zilei, 22/1/97).
It is interesting that the Romanian media use a rather self-explanatory
double-standard when discussing Roma problems. When reporting on crimes
committed by members of the minority, the papers call them with the pejorative
name ‘Gypsy.’ When presenting ‘neutral’ information, however, the
terms ‘Roma’ or ‘Rroma’ are used. The following examples
prove the above observation: “The Gypsy Catana chopped his own brother-in-law
with an axe.” (Adevarul, 19/4/98), “After he raped her, the
Gypsy Loi hanged his benefactress.” (Evenimentul Zilei, 28/7/98)
versus “Scholarships for Roma Law Students” (Romania Libera,
12/5/98).
When it comes to YUGOSLAVIA, it is usually Nasa Borba
which dedicates pages to the Roma and to the attitudes towards them (not
hiding racism found in opinion polls). The other papers often use the pejorative
term “Shaban” for Roma. This minority has started attracting the
media’s attention since last year. All papers follow the trend of publishing
pro-Roma articles, but only the independent press goes deep into the reasons
underlying the bad status of that minority: “Authorities Treat Us As
‘Underground People’” (Nasa Borba, 9/4/98). It is also important
to stress the fact that Dnevni Telegraf (29/4/98) criticized the
assaults of a skinhead gang on Belgrade street cleaners [mostly Albanians
and Roma]. This newspaper said that “skinheads are, in a way, the street
image of the regime and the prevalent status of the spirit: they are captives
of Europe a la carte too, and they borrow only negative epiphenomena from
developed countries.” Vreme qualified the skinheads’ actions
as “masturbation of Hitlerism on the gate of the Balkans.”
This short presentation of the situation in the Balkans shows clearly
that there is a wide-spread and deep prejudice in society against the Roma.
Since the latter do not follow the way of life and the value systems of
the majorities in the respective countries, they are treated with suspicion
and fear, but never with understanding. The most worrying thing, however,
is the fact that the media make use of this prevalent attitude and even
strengthen it. This tendency may lead to open conflicts among the Roma
and the non-Roma, because in the latter’s minds the former are among the
main symbols of evil. It is very important to point out that this tendency
is not just hypothetical. For example, in Bulgaria last year there were
the first instances of Roma lynchings, something which was widely covered
(and applauded) by the media.
Of course, one should not blame only the media for presenting such a
black and white picture of the situation of the Roma. The politicians remember
that the Roma are normal people only during their election campaigns. Society
at large is rather unreceptive and unwilling to change its prejudicial
concepts. However, both the politicians and society use the media for sharing
or receiving their information. This just supports the idea that the media
are powerful “weapons” for stereotyping, so one has to know how to use
them. That is why it is within the power and the responsibility of the
media to start drawing a more realistic picture of the Roma. This should
be a picture which incorporates all diverse aspects of Roma life and forgets
about the black and white half-truths which are both dangerous and uninteresting.