{"id":1216,"date":"2014-11-21T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/21-11-2014-swiss-german-media-one-sided-coverage-of-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-21T07:33:14","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:33:14","slug":"21-11-2014-swiss-german-media-one-sided-coverage-of-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/21-11-2014-swiss-german-media-one-sided-coverage-of-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"21.11.2014 Swiss German media: one-sided coverage of Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schindler (2014) reports \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton the November 18th Rroma Foundation\u2019s press conference. The foundation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpresented the results of their five-year study on the coverage of Rroma in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSwiss German print media. The result is devastating: the various newspapers (NZZ, Blick, 20 Minuten Tages-Anzeiger, Beobachter, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWeltwoche, Wochenzeitung (WOZ)), despite their different political orientation, all \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treport in a one-sided way on the Rroma. In the media representation, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tminority is reduced to a minority of marginalised, criminal Rroma. The majority \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof integrated Rroma \u2013 in Switzerland 80,000 to 100,000 people \u2013 is hidden: \u201cIf the is a report on Roma in Switzerland, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe texts are exclusively speaking of beggars, thieves, and prostitutes, which \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare organised in patriarchal clans and cause problems. How many Roma are living \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Switzerland, how unobtrusively they live and how well they are integrated, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe reader does not learn \u2013 unlike in Germany or France, where the media report \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmore balanced, according to the study.<\/em> In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe international departments however, the attention reduces them to victims, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstudy states.<\/em> They are described \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talmost exclusively as poor, uneducated and socially excluded\u201d<\/em> (Schindler \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014). Sutter (2014) focuses on the social effect of this one-sided reporting, in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ther reportage for SRF 2 Kultur. She emphasizes that at the press conference St\u00e9phane \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLaederich appealed to ethical responsibilities of journalists. They should ask \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthemselves whether a mentioning of ethnicity in relation to criminal offenses \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis morally acceptable: \u201c\u201cWe want to point \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tout that the image of begging clans does not correspond to reality.\u201d<\/em> The stereotypes that can be repeatedly found \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcome in part of the Western European middle Ages.<\/em> The image of child stealing, pagan, thieving Roma has legitimized their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpersecution and murder several times in the past.<\/em> In connection with the reporting in Switzerland, St\u00e9phane Laederich \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspeaks of \u201cintellectual arson that can all too easily turn into a real arson.\u201d<\/em> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTherefore a ticking time bomb in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcurrent European climate where right-wing nationalists celebrate great successes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin voting\u201d<\/em> (Sutter 2014). Now the journalists are asked to act. It is up to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthem to replace this one-sided reporting with a differentiated picture of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tminority, and to encourage the readers to think critically. That alone can be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe aspiration of good journalism. Therefore, the reference \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat the media necessarily report about the negative or extraordinary, misses \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe concerns of the Rroma Foundation: journalism hast to be more than just \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinformation, it must provide a realistic notion of the world and its minorities \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(compare Jirat 2014).<\/p>\n