Report realized in European Media Word Exchanges in MARS programme UE, 2012 Willy Totoro (Cyprus) and Cristina

Silion (Romania)

Non-discrimination and antiracism in media practice and rules, in Cyprus and Romania

I. MINORITY GROUPS IN GALATI, ROMANIA In Romania, the minorities and migrants ethnic groups are well organized. They have organizations in which they meet together to solve some of their problems and to interact with social and cultural activities. 1) The Roma community in Romania The Roma community is organized manly to help their community to register themselves and to register their children to the municipality to get identity cards, birth certificates, passports and any other legal document. For many of them, the poverty in which they find themselves or even the mentality does not give them the chance to go to register as this sometimes needs money. Also their culture does not encourage them to go to register as, like in the past, they move often to several places. The Roma community can have up to 50.000 people, in Galati City, Romania, but the government knows only about 17.000, because many of them do not declare their origin, at the population census. The Roma organizations are very active in activities which help their communities in different aspects like health, school, development, integration. They encourage their members to go to visit the hospitals when they have health problem, they educate them in terms of health and also they encourage them to go to school and for those who left school earlier, to go back to school again. To help the integration of the Roma community in the society, the municipalities has appointed representatives of Roma people in the municipalitys councils and offices, to be

like a key person handling the relation between the municipality and the Roma community. In this way, the municipality can get information concerning the Roma children, women, young people and their needs. Being themselves Roma, they know their problems, their needs and they can help with strategies to use, to respond to all these needs. Concerning the discrimination in Romania, this is something really general. It concerns a very big number of people. The responsible of a local Roma organization gave us an example of an announcement in a national newspaper: someone was looking for a girlfriend but he said openly that he wants somebody except for a Roma person. The Roma find themselves excluded for many offers even if they were able to respond to the profile of the person needed. And that discrimination is extended in all the levels in the society. A journalist from Galati gave us an explanation for this kind of attitude: Romanians react because, in most of the cases, the Roma people do not want to accept the rules of the society where they want to integrate in. Some actions started years ago to take place to reduce the discrimination such as, creating a TV program special for the Roma, in a national station, and a newspaper, as we said before. 2) The Greek community in Romania. The Greek community in Romania is one of the biggest groups. Its members is concerning Greek speaking people who were in Romania years ago back and those who came later by migration. In Galati, they have a well-organized community and try to keep their culture to their children. One of their main activities is the cultural exchange they do with their members and Greece where they go once or twice a year. They have also their Greek Orthodox Church. They contribute a lot in the Romania community in the activities they are doing. A part of cultural activities, they have also social activities and activities for children and other members of their community. The Greek community does not face a very big discrimination, but their representative think that they do not have access to the governmental funds for their activities. 3) Other minority communities groups.

In Romania exist also others groups like the Hungarian, Turkish community, the Indians community, the other immigrant communities like the Africans, the Asians and so on. All the communities of minority groups in Romania do a very huge contribution in different activities, showing the multicultural image in the country. This reflects the diversity of people living in the country and the rich contribution of this in the particularity of each group shown to the others. Good examples can be learned from each other and people will have the opportunity to learn the culture and the behavior of the others. 4) Examples of discrimination in Romania. In Romania, the discrimination is based on different aspect of everyday life. We will focus here on the discrimination towards individuals based on ethnic origin.
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Discrimination towards the minorities in general

The minority groups in Romania, being exposed not to have connections or political support, they are supposed not to be able to get any funding from the country for their activities. They work in the same obligations with other Romania organizations but their incomes are limited only on the few contribution they receive from their members. They are in this case discriminated comparatively to the other Romania organizations. They face different form of discrimination in general.
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Discrimination toward minority groups in the press (radio, television, newspapers)

In reality, inside the media, you find several time cases of discrimination against minority groups, especially against the Roma community. The most common (but not generally) is this case: when one particular Roma person does any mistake, the way it will be presented in the news will be discriminatory way and different from the way it is presented when the same mistake could be done by any other person in the community. It is showed that a Roma did that mistake, instead not to evidence that and just say that a person with his name did the mistake. A representative of Roma community in Galati told us that she is feeling discriminated when a popular newscaster on a national private TV address always with the term tsigani when news concerning Roma are broadcast. Concerning the Greek community, they are facing another type of discrimination: its activity is frequently

presented only by the largest local newspaper, and the others media do not seem really interested in what they are doing. We have to say that there are different attitudes among local and national media, the last being more aggressive towards the sensitive subjects or category of people. It is also a difference between the private and the national broadcasting, the last one having a more strictly regulation, also in anti-discrimination field. II. MINORITY GROUPS IN NICOSIA, CYPRUS 1) The communities from EU members countries In Cyprus there is a big number of communities from EU countries who are there to work. They are from countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Tcheque Republic, Poland, Latvia, Spain, Italy. Some of them are organized according to their country of origins. They have some kind of informal get together to remember their countries habits and culture and practices. They contribute a lot in the society. 2) The community of recognized refugees There is a big community of refugees recognized by the state to stay and live in the country for the rest of their lives. These people are mostly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. They are very well organized all together and contribute with cultural, social and integration effort activities which they realize by themselves. They try to connect positively with other NGO which deal with refugees and immigrants, with the UNHCR, with the state and with the whole Cyprus society. They make all their effort to follow and respect the law establish. They still fill marginalized and excluded. They do not have any voice which could speak for them. 3) Community of people from Non EU member states Those are people mostly from Asia, Middle East and Africa. They are in the country working as labors, house made, prostitutes or sex sellers working for a night club. They are organized according to their country of origin and meet regularly to share their situation and try to help each other where they have been abused. They are mostly victim

of exploitation, like the other minority groups from non EU countries. Their position does not give them a chance to fight against any exploitation and discrimination they may face. 4) Examples of discrimination in Cyprus The discrimination is getting a very progressive position in Cyprus especially for the periods of crises in Europe. The people who are exposed on that discrimination are mainly immigrants from non EU countries. They are discriminated by the state from any social assistance, they are discriminated by the society being considered like low class people, modern slaves, people who just came in the country to destroy and take Cypriots jobs.
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Discrimination towards immigrants in general

In Cyprus, the fact that all the immigrants are presented just like people who came to get Cypriots jobs, the officials and the other members of the society practice openly discrimination towards them just trying to show to the cypriots that they care for the Cypriot community more than the immigrants to get points from the Cypriot community. This is done by the politicians as well. Especially on this period of elections and as the crises are rising, the immigrants are victim of discrimination, showing that they are responsible of the crises. It is very easy to see a police or an immigration officer asking any employer: why did you take this immigrant to the job, why you did not take a Cypriot? The immigrants are considered like responsible of the crises and are showed by hand that they are the one who came to destroy the country.
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Examples of discrimination toward immigrants in the media

The media in Cyprus, present in discriminatory way news which concern an immigrant to the audience. For a mistake done by one person, they generalize by saying for Examples, the refugees, or the Bulgarians, or the Africans... are doing this kind of practice in the country, and the audience take this image that all these people are the one who are doing that kind of mistake. Which is different than the way they present a mistake done by a Cypriot. There are as well radio and TV programs which were establish to show that all the refugees came in the country just to take the money which the Cypriots are paying as tax.

That program did a very strong and long debate which established hate of the Cypriot community towards refugees and strengthening the exclusion and high level of discrimination. You can find many other similar examples in the different newspapers in the country. Of course, not all the media act the same. A journalist at Cyprus Mail was awarded twice for his press material presenting the immigrant issue in a positive way. He is interested on solidarity with refugees, human trafficking practice to immigrants, sexual exploitation. This is a positive action and could be an example to change the image in Cyprus.

III. MEDIA LEGISLATION IN CYPRUS AND ROMANIA The non-discriminated and anti-racist discourse in media is legislated in all the laws or all the self-regulations concerning this field. It is true, also, that these texts are talking much about the freedom of speech than about limitations to journalists work. In Cyprus, the Press Law safeguards the freedom of the press, the unhindered circulation of newspapers, the right of journalists not to disclose the sources of their information and access to official information. The Romanian Press Law, which was dealing with the same discourse, was abolished recently, because it was dating from the communist period. Now, the parliamentarians and the representatives of media organizations are disputing the fact that a new Press Law is necessary or if only the self-regulation of journalists is enough to ensure them the freedom to speech and to protect the public from their possible slips-up. Concerning the audiovisual field, the both laws, the Romanian and the Cypriot one, are dealing with general declaration of the principals of non-discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, political believes. The legislation is, in this point, not very strictly. Even if the both laws are applying punishments for not respecting this statutory, it is curios that the legislation is so lax. Recently approved by the Romanian Parliament (2011), The Code of Audiovisual Regulation makes no other note to discrimination. In the future, the Cypriot law could suffer some important and positive modification concerning the anti-discriminatory articles, as the representative of the

Authority told us. After the presidential election, the Authority will propose these modifications to be approved by the Parliament. But what we saw is that, in the present, The National Council of Audiovisual in Romania and The Cyprus Radio-television Authority has not at all a priority in monitoring in which degree the programs are respecting the regulation concerning the discrimination. The daily monitoring are dealing with other subjects and a possible discrimination made on a TV or radio programmer is analyzed mostly after a complaint. Is true, the inspectors in audiovisual field can seized by themselves facts of discrimination, but this is the case of very evident excess. Comparative to the declaration of representatives of discriminated groups, the complains are few in the last year, 5 cases from all radio and TV stations in Cyprus, and no one concerning Galati area. And fewer are right. I.e., in the last year, the inspectors in Cyprus found out that no one was true. IV. JOURNALISTS CODES OF ETHICS In the absence of a functioning Press Council to deal with complaints or non-compliance with journalistic standards, Cyprus journalists have their own Code of Conduct and have set up a committee to monitor its implementation. All form of anti-discrimination are generally covered by this code. The Cyprus Media Complaints Commission is an independent press council, responsible for the self-regulation in print and electronic media. So, the freedom of the press is maintained, standards of conduct are raised and the members of the public can complaint against the media when they feel they have been offended. Code of Ethics Committee shall monitor and look after the respect of the Code and of the Constituion of the commission, acting either on its own initiative or upon the initiative of the Administrative Council of the Union or following recourse to it by members or third parties in writing. If a member is found in breach of the Code, the Committee shall impose the sanctions provided for in the Constitution. The media institution concerned is obliged to respect and also to publish the decision. The Romanian journalists have not a single Code of Ethics. Different media organizations have adoptet different deontological codes. The National Council of Audiovisual adopted a special code for this field. All of this texts are blaming also the antidiscriminatory messages in press. In practice, this media organizations have no visible role in changing

this kind of comportament. This can receive the complaints against journalist, but they deal with blaming in public the messages or the programs that are breaking the code and have no other modality to constraint the improuvement of the message content. In Beyond the rules (that could not be even known by some journalists), the quality of the message read or heard by the public depends on the institution management and editorial line or, finally, even on journalists conscience. Thats explains partially why the discriminatory messages still slips in the press. But the journalists we spoked to were totally agree that it is not against free speech to interdict the words like tzigani or other forms discrimiantive discours.int

V. SOLUTION AND RECOMMENDATION 1. To monitor the phenomena of discrimination in media. We saw that no public institution has the job to monitor in which degree the press is discriminatory and with whom. There are information only about complains and the modality the institution solved it. We found only a report (2011) of ENAR organizations in Cyprus and Romania, treating with the discrimination in mass media. An annual report of a public institution or a nongovernmental organization will give a real image of this phenomenon and will provide useful information to the direction to action. 2. Raising the awareness of the journalists. In Cyprus, the Office of the Commissioner has issued a Guideline for the Media against racism, xenophobia and discrimination. The issue presents general principles and suggestions for the positive contribution of the media towards combatting phenomena of different types of discriminations. For example, the journalists are guided to use correct and precise terminology for reporting each case of refugee or immigrant (irregular immigrant in place of illegal immigrant). The brochure also presents a general overview of both the European and national institutional frameworks against discrimination including specific references to the operation of the media. The texts existing in the law and in the ethics codes of the journalist concerning the non-discrimination are explicated in this brochure. We think that similar brochures, presenting also good practices, must be issued for Romanians journalist too. In

collaboration with media organizations, the NGOs acting on human rights or with the discriminated groups could propose their own guidelines. This NGOs could have another important role in stopping or decreasing this phenomena. They must organize local, regional or national seminars or workshops for training journalists in diversity reporting and in effective ways to overcome stereotypical portrayal of groups facing discrimination. Also, we think that some contests will encourage the journalists to improve their skills in writing about different communities. 3. Raising the awareness of the people. Also, we discovered that people may not be aware of their rights of complaining in a case of discrimination made by a journalist. Even if the institutions in the anti-discrimination field have issued brochures to improve knowledge of discrimination by raising awareness among the population, there is not enough, at least concerning the media. Reported to cases of racism or discrimination in this field, there are so few complains. In Romania, at the national level, there is a Council of Antidiscrimination which receives complaints of any kind of discrimination and can deal also with discrimination inside the media. In Cyprus, the same roles have Equality Authority and Anti-Discrimination Body, both included in Office of the Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman). Also, they can report a possible discrimination on TV or radio at The National Council of Audiovisual (in Romania) and at The Cyprus Radiotelevision Authority. The Cypriots can make a complaint at The Cyprus Media Complaints Commission and the Romanians could request to the local or national journalists organizations to analyze a certain declaration in media. So, if a possible discriminatory attitude would be signaled at the three different institutions, which have different ways to mediate it, the pressure in the media would be much bigger and the concern for this subject will increase . 4. Improve the activity of some public or independent institution. In Cyprus and in Romania, a possible discriminatory (or racist) programme may be reported by e-mail or even by telephone, at the audiovisual authorities. Nevertheless, in Romania, the procedure of complaining is more bureaucratic in the case of National Council against Discrimination. A

person who has a complaint has no way other than sending a petition with all the documents joint. In Cyprus, The Ombusdman institution is more easily to contact, by email or even by phone. What we saw is that the Ombudsman is very well organized, works promptly and it is much opened to the people. Is has also an important activity in rising awareness of people in different fields. In this time, The National Council against Discrimination in Romania has a bureaucratic way to submitting complaints and so few concretes actions in decreasing the phenomena. So, one of our recommendation concerns the improvement of this councils efficiency, but this could not be done without the governmental support. The human and financial support is a also a problem for the audiovisual bodies for example, they could propose to monitor the discriminatory acts in media, but they have no human resources to do it. Also, we signaled that in both countries there is the practice to do some recommendations to prevent others similar recurrences in media, before applying a fine. It is a good way to rising the awareness and the shame of being accused in public for their comportment (in the case which the media institution is obliged to publish the recommendation) could be, for some journalists or media institutions, a reason not to do it again. For example, the Ombudsman never gave a fine for complains concerning the media field. Also, the audiovisual authorities give first a warning, then a recommendation and after many violations of the law a fine. But often these recommendations and even the fines themselves are not discouraging this kind of attitude. Do not forget that the audience brings money in media. And sometimes, a discriminatory way to present an event or a group could bring a bigger audience than objective news. So, we wonder if bigger amends could make the media institutions more aware of what they are supplying to their public. 5. Improve the self regulation of the journalists. In Romania could operate an independent commission treating the complaints against the journalists, as the Cypriot one does. 6. To promote their own communities. It is very important that the representatives of the NGOs have to improve their collaboration with journalists, to know the media agenda, to send background information to the journalists when necessary or even to be a source for a story presenting positively a discriminated group of people. This role could be also taken

by a leader of the group or the community, recognized both by media and by people whom he represents.