Brainstorming ideas at workshop in Chisinau

Fulbright Update:
Journalists learn Responsibly Reporting Roma
One of the tenets of peace journalism is to give a voice to the marginalized in our communities. Here in Moldova, and throughout much of Europe, there is probably no group that is as marginalized as Roma.

With this in mind, I launched a two-seminar series on Responsibly Reporting Roma. The first event was held on May 17 in Chisinau, and the second a week later in Soroca, a city north of Chisinau with a large Roma population. Both seminars were sponsored by the Independent Press Association (API).

Elena Sirbu, at Roma workshop in Soroca

I was joined by journalist and Roma activist Elena Sirbu. She told the journalists in Chisinau about the diversity in the Roma community, including the fact that there are 40 sub-groups of Roma. She discussed the term gypsy (in Romanian, tigan), which was used long ago to describe a slave or “untouchable.” Today, this term is seen as an “insult,” according to one of the Roma panelists who presented at the seminar. In Chisinau, one journalist said that the term gypsy (tigan) is tradition, implying therefore that it’s okay to use. I replied that there are traditional terms in the US to describe African Americans, including the n-word, but that no one believes now that these terms are acceptable. In Soroca, the discussion about “tigan” was much more robust, with several journalists arguing that some older Roma even accept and use this word. Sirbu replied that it’s a little like the n-word in the U.S.—that it’s okay to use within a group of African Americans, but insulting when others use it. At the outset of the Soroca seminar, the journalists were freely using the word “tigan.” By the end of the seminar, they were not.

In Chisinau, the panelists and Sirbu all decried the stereotyping and stigmatization of Roma done by the media. Panelist Sergiu Bugai showed several examples where media fed into the stale narrative of Roma as criminals. I said that all journalism codes of ethics I know dictate that journalists not mention the race or ethnicity of subjects in their stories unless it’s relevant. So, the paper should read, “store robbed,” not, “Roma robs store.”

Panelist Sergiu Bugai at Chisinau workshop

In both Soroca and Chisinau, I presented some information about how peace journalism can provide a foundation for more responsibly reporting about Roma. This includes rejecting stereotyping, xenophobic language and images like the one Sirbu showed of Roma women in colorful dress. Roma voices must be central to any reporting about Roma communities. And peace journalists should offer counternarrative stories that debunk media created and perpetuated stereotypes, stigma, and myths about Roma. The journalists attending the seminars were asked to come up with counternarrative story ideas about Roma in Moldova. The excellent story ideas generated in Chisinau and Soroca were on religious diversity in Roma communities, discrimination in employment, schooling for Roma kids, Roma LGBTQ individuals, success stories, Roma women and mental health, NGO programs for Roma, and mixed families of Roma and other Moldovans.

I hope to see these stories online, in print, and on the air in the coming weeks.