{"id":1388,"date":"2013-12-06T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/06-12-2013-the-media-coverage-on-rroma-in-switzerland-is-one-sided-and-often-defamatory\/"},"modified":"2022-08-21T07:33:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:33:32","slug":"06-12-2013-the-media-coverage-on-rroma-in-switzerland-is-one-sided-and-often-defamatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/06-12-2013-the-media-coverage-on-rroma-in-switzerland-is-one-sided-and-often-defamatory\/","title":{"rendered":"06.12.2013 The Media Coverage on Rroma in Switzerland is One-Sided and often Defamatory"},"content":{"rendered":"

On behalf \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the Federal Commission against Racism, the Research Institute for the Public \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Society of the Zurich University made a study on the quality of the reporting \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Swiss media about Rroma (Ettinger, 2013; compare NZZ, 2013; 20 Minuten, 2013; \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tS\u00fcdostschweiz, 2013). The study examined a representative sample of Swiss media \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the period from 2005 to 2012. The study concludes that the contributions are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thighly selective and unbalanced: in the daily press on Switzerland, \u00a0Rroma are almost only referred to in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelation to asylum abuse, begging, theft, or prostitution. They appear \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprimarily as perpetrators or in the case of prostitution as the victims of clan-related \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tforced prostitution. While some Rroma come to word in various newspapers, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttendency to let officials talk about them dominates \u201cBecause of the focus on crime and deviant behaviour, representatives \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the executive branch (24%), respectively of the police (12%) and the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjudiciary (6%) are the ones who most frequently come to word\u201d<\/em> (Ettinger \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2013). The coverage is dominated by an image of an enemy that hypes up \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tindividual cases as precedents and builds them to an attestation of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tculturally determined Rroma delinquency, which needs not be further explained: \u201cThe explanation of the rationale behind their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstatements is waived in particular by spokesman for the police (60 %), who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlimits their statements to delinquent behaviour of Roma, and almost without \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texception the citizen who argument on the basis on the basis of their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsubjective concerns whose aversions and fears are expressive statements that do \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot require a justification.\u201d <\/em>The alleged facts are therefore based on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsuspicions and on the willingness to believe them as facts.<\/p>\n

In the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treporting on Rroma outside of Switzerland in turn dominated by the perspective of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tportraying Rroma as the victims of discrimination and exclusion. The usual defamation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabout Rroma in Switzerland are largely ignored.<\/p>\n

However, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe study does not sufficiently question to what extent journalists and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconcerned citizens just assume that the people one reports on are Rroma. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tattribution of a Rroma identity to conspicuous people is not looked into and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsidered to be problematic, but simply taken as given. This became clear in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparticular in the study of the Zurich street prostitution that simply \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpostulated that the women in question are Rroma. How these statistics came \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabout, is not problematized: \u201cThe \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmajority of sex workers surveyed include the groups of the two Roma groups \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRomunro or Olah on\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>(Sex \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEducatio 2012: 43). A clear identification of ethnicity is anything but simple, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas the case around the blonde Rroma girl has shown.<\/p>\n

On the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma Contact Point side, we find it would be great to give unspectacular \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttopics such as the lives of integrated Rroma a voice and speak of their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teveryday life in order to create a counterweight to the negative \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trepresentations. Ettinger notes: Although \u201cRoma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthemselves come to word in no small numbers in reporting, t in 13 percent of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe contributions they present their reactions. But the opinions the Roma and respectively \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJenische are usually only reactions to existing problems. Roma or Jenische \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttherefore are not able to contribute their own issues and positions in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treporting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The aspect \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the political instrumentalisation of the Rroma to political ends falls short \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin this study even though Ettinger notes that Rroma are exploited before votes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor partisan political ends. But the continuous values projection on Rroma by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolitically varied oriented daily and weekly media are too little criticised. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYet it is precisely the Rroma who are continuously abused as a counter point to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe construction of a civic identity. Ettinger’s study therefore lacks a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thistorical perspective on the aspect of discrimination that could thematise the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocio-political aspect of the exclusion. This view would show that there is a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttradition of prejudice against Rroma that has been perpetuated for centuries. A \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgood source in this respect is Klaus-Michael Bogdal (2011) study on the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdissemination of false, distorting culturalisms. Another problem is that the misrepresentation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Rroma on poverty-related phenomena such as illiteracy, begging, prostitution, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thigh childbirth rates, or low level of education is not discussed critically. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt is not enough to expose these representations as racist. They must be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tidentified as wrong and distorting representations. Otherwise, the impression \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmay arise that while the coverage was indeed distorted, there nevertheless is a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tculture of delinquency and exploitation among Rroma, which, due to political \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcorrectness, one must not mention. In the context of the poverty immigration to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGermany, numerous journalists are arguing this way. Rather, social problems \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsuch as poverty and exclusion must be considered as such. In addition, cultural \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texplanations that are based on prejudice and not on effective knowledge must be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trecognised as such and deconstructed.<\/p>\n