Against anti-Gypsy statements on the Lipetsk regional portal

On May 7, 2007, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) sent a letter to the director of the portal "Lipetsknews" Ilya Zakharov, in which he protested against the anti-Roma hate speech constantly appearing in the news of this regional resource.

The appeal was based on an analysis of the portal's publications for 2006-2007 (mainly crime chronicles), which, according to ERRC, contain expressions identifying Roma with criminals or simply "inappropriate references to Roma ethnicity in describing crimes" ( "Police looking for Roma -raiders" , etc.).

It should be noted that in the examples cited by ERRC, to label "gypsies" as criminals, not only direct accusations are used ( "Gypsy robber killed an old man in Yelets" ), but also hints that appeal to xenophobic stereotypes of readers ( "The watchmen did not hear anything. It is interesting that the school is located in an area that the locals call Tavolzhanka. This is a place of compact residence of gypsies " ), as well as stylistically incorrect constructions ( "thieves sold the loot to gypsies, taxi drivers, and sometimes their own neighbors" ).

ERRC calls on the portal manager to "take a strong stand against anti-Romani hate speech, review the agency's policy towards persons of a certain nationality, in particular the Romani, and not allow posts that provoke an increase in intolerance towards the Romani" .

Information from the European Roma Rights Center