"happy" romanians: media & racism, partners in crime

Fourth arm of the state. Romania's press becomes a willing partner in prejudice
by Valeriu Nicolae
Despite its new-found enthusiasm for taking the leadership in the fight against corruption in high places – a useful card in its game plan for accession to the European Union – Romania's media plays a limited role in the fight against racism, violence and rampant discrimination. On the contrary, it plays to the prejudices of its consumers, more often promoting discrimination than fighting against it. Racism and domestic violence, for instance, are widespread in Romania but do not form any part of public discourse. Discussion of such things is seen as prejudicial to the country's efforts to join the EU and to be avoided at all costs; any attempt to raise these issues is met with hostility in the media. Discriminatory and offensive language is a daily phenomenon in the media, feeding the insensitivity of its consumers to the discrimination and violence that are endemic in Romanian society. Far from performing an educational role, the media forms part of the political and judicial structures that effectively ensure an almost complete ban on the exposure of racism, discrimination, inequality and violence. Efforts by human rights organisations in recent years to bring these things to light have had a certain amount of success. At the same time, however, hostility to such work has resulted in the emergence of a public discourse that defines a dangerous dichotomy between those 'activists' and 'true Romanians'.

Gender discrimination and domestic violence are so commonplace and accepted as part of daily life in Romania that they seldom make it into the news. The few women who dare to talk about the issues are often accused of trying to get easy publicity; many are also accused of being lesbians, crazy, manipulated or corrupted by the intellectual – often foreign – elites out to destroy 'Romanian tradition and culture'.
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The Romanian Orthodox Church and rural traditions are still seen as the 'backbone' of the Romanian nation. The most trusted institution in Romania according to opinion polls, the Orthodox Church is highly patriarchal and strongly advocates the submissiveness of women to men; rural traditions are strongly sexist. Romanian newspapers are full of stories about abused celebrity wives and advertisements offering 'submissive women for company'. Popular bands such as BUG Mafia and Parazitii openly promote violence against women in their lyrics.

Since the regime change in Romania in 1990, there have been annual reports of a significant number of incidents suggesting that much of the anti-Gypsyism emanating from the media can be understood as responses to existing popular anti-Roma feeling in Romania. Polls from 2006 show that 75 per cent of Romanians do not want to live near Roma and over 50 per cent of Romanian villagers would support forced sterilisation against Roma women. Even in those rare instances of apparently sympathetic portrayals in the media, Roma seem to be perceived as not fully human, at best childlike. Coverage of the Roma in general are inadequate, fragmented and biased, if not blatantly racist.

Romania's media is largely commercially driven, and there is little appetite or will to produce programming that promotes tolerance and combats the social exclusion of Roma. Commercial television and tabloid newspapers over- whelmingly portray Roma in a negative light, reproducing the conventional racist stereotypes.

Programmes and articles are clearly the products of journalists' own subjective perspectives, which include both rational and emotional convictions. Given the often ingrained anti-Gypsyism in many journalist, it is not surprising that most news reports related to the Roma focus on Roma ghettos or neighbourhoods; anti-Gypsyism is often combined with other types of discriminatory practices such as xenophobia, sexism and homophobia.

As in the case of gender discrimination, the most worrisome aspect is that leading intellectuals and opinion makers openly promote anti-Gypsyism.
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Religiously motivated discrimination, racism against Africans, and the horrendous discrimination and neglect of people with disabilities and mental health problems are other subjects studiously avoided by the Romanian media, which not only influences perceptions of 'the Other' but, in the case of Roma and other disadvantaged groups, encourages rejection.

On 2 June 2005, the gay festival in Bucharest saw violent incidents and attacks by the extreme right and pro-religious groups on the participants. The overwhelming majority of Romanian intellectuals and opinion makers were again either silent, finding excuses for such incidents, or openly against any type of gay rights.

The results of opinion polls, often influenced by the media, provide a clear indication that a significant number of readers buy and watch media products promoting racism and discrimination. It is reasonable to assume that prejudices and preferences are boosted and reinforced by the media and that the constant, pervasive negative and stereotypical reporting stimulates discriminatory practices. Journalists seem unaware or unconcerned by the consequences of their cultivation of xenophobia and incitement to ethnic hatred. There appears to be a substantial consensus in much of the print and broadcast media, which manifests itself in dangerous representations of the vulnerable groups not just as pariahs who deserve what they get, but in the case of Roma, homosexuals and feminists, as the menacing enemy within. Not only does the media appear to accept and promote a dangerous Roma-citizen dichotomy, it extends this dichotomy to the separation of the 'true and good Romanians' from the human rights activists.
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also: "Anti-Gypsyism - a definition"