Journ 510. International Field Study in Journalism. (6 SCH) Students will become familiar with media and political systems of another country. Ten-day travel to the country will be required. Course may be repeated one time for a different country of study.
This course served as one of my electives for this degree plan. We traveled to Budapest, Hungary and Zurich, Switzerland. During our 10 days abroad the class went to numerous media outlets for an in-depth look at the European "free press". Below, I have selected a few samples of coursework required for this class.
Can the Roma perspective be changed?
Tonya Domokos
In my first submitted paper the conclusion began with ‘It looks like the future of the Roma population is finally going to change for the better,’ that sentiment is only true when you speak to certain people. If you are talking to a Roma businessman such as Tivadar Fatyol, managing director of Radio C, the future doesn’t look much bright than it has in the last ten to fifteen years. But if you are speaking to someone who is only looking in from the outside such as Gergely Romsics, who firmly believes the Hungarian entrance into the European Union, EU, will be a godsend for the Roma people.
“This will finally give the Roma people a foothold legally for issues that have been getting nowhere,” Romsics stated when asked if joining the EU was a step in the right direction for the Roma or if this would just be another let down for this browbeaten population?
“Human rights, democracy and the rule of law are core values of the European Union. Embedded in its founding treaty, they have been reinforced by the adoption of a Charter of Fundamental Rights. Respect for human rights is a prerequisite for countries seeking to join the
Countries that do not have in place or plans to have in place programs to help minority groups can be denied entrance into the EU or can be fined.
As a student, sitting in the Center for Independent Journalism, a school designed to help educate and employ Roma journalist, I was informed of the qualifications a country has to have to join the EU, I began to form the opinion that just maybe there was a glimmer of hope for the Roma population. Romsics went on with his lecture and even reinforced the belief that the battle that the Roma have been fighting for centuries was about to turn in their favor.
I began to feel some of the despair I had for how the Roma population is presently treated beginning to lift. I couldn’t wait to talk to my instructor Janis Overlock and her husband Alfonz Zsiga. Zsiga was managing director of a Radio C from September 2004-January 2006. But my cloud of optimism was burst as they told me the reality of how politics work. Their opinion was echoed by Tivadar Fatyol, as we visited Radio C.
Radio C, C for Cigany, the Hungarian for "Gypsy" is a radio station designated for the Roma people.
In a press release former station manager Gyorgy Kerenyi calls the existence of Radio C "a very big step in the emancipation of the Roma," critics brand the station a lost opportunity: an unprofessional mess that perpetuates negative stereotypes.
"Radio C is not brave enough to give a voice to the Roma community," said Jeno Zsigo, the leader of the Hungarian Roma Parliament, an organization that provides legal aid to Roma and arranges cultural events, in the Mass Media for a Minority article written by Doug Merlino in 2002.
Zsigo also stated he believed the station was a catastrophe and it reinforced the stereotype of Roma’s being criminals. He came to this opinion because of listening to the station one day and most of the request he heard were for relatives on certain streets. He claims that all of
But while Zsigo may have this opinion of Radio C and what it can do for the Roma community one man would stand to differ. Alfonz Zsiga speaks passionately of the trial and tribulations the station has endured just to stay on the air. Zsiga is preparing to make a move to
“We need a Martin Luther King,” Zsiga said about having a united voice for the Roma people. “Right now everyone is fighting for their own concerns. You may have one Roma group here fighting for education and one there fighting for equal housing rights. But as a unified voice it hasn’t happened yet.”
For those who worked at Radio C with Zsiga they speak of him as if he was a Martin Luther King of his time. But Zsiga humbly shakes his head he is just a man who loves his people and is deeply hurt by the injustices and prejudices they must face on a daily bases. He finds leaving his post at Radio C at one of the most difficult decisions he has had to make. But he is far from leaving his post as a solider in this fight. “I know many people outside of Hungary who might be able to help unify the Roma voice”, Zsiga said with a quite confidence and I am left wondering if maybe I might be standing in the presence of a Meger Evans or a Martin Luther King.
But in the meantime the injustices continue as we can see from this newspaper article released June 29, 2006:
International organizations call for halt to planned eviction wave
in Bulgaria 29 June, 2006, Budapest, Geneva, Sofia: The Sofia Municipality in the Vazrazhdane district has announced that on 30 June 2006 it will forcibly evict Roma families from the Batalova vodenitza neighbourhood, also known as NPZ Sredetz. Many of the families have lived in this neighborhood for almost a century and are now threatened with homelessness, as the Municipality has not offered compensation or resettlement.
Furthermore, in May 2006, vice-mayor of the
International human rights organizations, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), have called for a halt to the planned eviction wave of Roma in Sofia in a letter addressed to the President of Bulgaria.
COHRE Executive Director, Jean du Plessis, condemned the announcement saying, “No details were provided on the new strategy and there was no guarantee that the human rights of Roma would be respected. When a similar announcement was made in August last year, it led to devastating consequences for 24 Romani families in the Hristo Botev neighborhood of
The Batalova vodenitza neighborhood now faces a similar fate. The families, due to be evicted tomorrow, are only entitled to one-time support in the amount of BGN 275 (approximately Euro 130). They have now filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights. (Malcolm Langford, Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions, +49 163 820 1133, mail=malcolm@cohre.org)
The housing situation of the Roma people is very acute and needs immediate attention, according to a study conducted by UNDP and the World Bank.
Many of the housing problems have been linked to the actual legal rights of the land the Roma occupy, insecure occupation of the apartments and poor building quality of the housing.
The 2002 Quality of Life study shows that many Roma families do not have basic sanitary facilities in their homes. Many Roma households are twice the size of non-Roma households. The average Roma home has 5-6 persons while the non-Roma has 2-3 persons but the total surface of a Roma home is twice as small.
The study reports the non-ethnic approach when building housing policies included the severe exclusion of the Roma people as well as many of the other people who suffered during the transition years. There is a big danger, at all levels of decision making, European, national, regional and locally, to exacerbate the spatial segregation of Roma settlements considering that housing for Roma is a separate issue and not part of the general housing policy.
To an outsider from a country who has had their own share of discriminations and prejudice I found some of the condition we were being told about astonishing but believable. I was only a small girl when segregation began but the memory is vivid in my mind. I was transported 60 miles from my home to an all black school while some of their students were transferred to our school. I was a small white girl in a class full of angry black students who wanted me there as much I wanted to be there. But being a Navy brat I was used to being the new girl and I was not taught to be prejudice so I made friends quickly. If only life could be so simple.
Many of the Roma youth would just like the hatred, a hatred they can’t even completely remember how it began, to go away. While many others remember distinctly when the hatred started and how long it has been going on. Fighting for rights, basic rights, is not just a cause but a way of life.
Many more remember, than want to forget, many remember Empress Maria Theresa and her four great decrees which began with the Age of Englightened Absolution.
The Age of Enlightened Absolutism was characterized by essential changes in the sovereign policies toward the "gypsies". In the face of the complete failure of all attempts to banish them permanently from their dominion, the sovereigns of the Enlightenment were searching for new methods and ways to solve the "gypsy problem" from the second half of the 18th century. Therefore, assimilation by decree of the state was added to the methods of expulsion and persecution of the Roma that have been practiced to this day.
Measures forcing the Roma to give up their ways of life were taken, to do away with an "uncontrollable nuisance" and to transform so called "unproductive" parts of the population into "respectable, obedient and diligent people". It was their most important goal to keep the Roma from wandering about and to make the "roving and vagabond gypsies" settle down permanently. The coercion to live rural lives or to learn civic trades, and the destruction of their cultural identity, was supposed to lead to assimilation into society.
The primary motives behind the enforcement of assimilation at that time undoubtedly were the aspiration of the centralised state to control its subjects, and integrated Roma into the existing economic system. But the religious beliefs of a few sovereigns also played a role. They saw an honorable duty in the "civilisation" of the "gypsies", quasi Christian response to enforce their "re-education" into becoming "good Christians".
The policies of assimilation during that time were based on the way the Enlightenment viewed human beings: the individual was regarded as "capable of learning and improving". At the same time, the measures that were taken to assimilate the Roma rested upon the assumption that their culture was inferior on principle. The physical extermination of the "gypsies" was replaced by the destruction of their culture and traditional ways of life. Only in comparison to the brutal persecution of former eras could this new way of dealing with the Roma be possibly seem as progressive. Moreover, the methods applied in "civilising" the Roma - such as taking away their children - were in many cases more brutal and inhumane.
Very early attempts by the state to assimilate the Roma can be found in
Maria Theresa, the Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, set an example with her policies of assimilation that influenced many other sovereigns. Striving to make the Roma settle down as “new citizens” or "new farmers", she issued altogether four great decrees during her fourty year reign from 1740-1780. By means of these decrees the Roma would be forced to give up their ways of life.
Decree 1: (1758) forced the "gypsies" to settle. They were denied the right to own horses and wagons in order to keep them from "nomadising". The Roma were issued land and seeds and became liable to pay tribute from their crops just like the other subjects of the crown. They were supposed to build houses and had to ask for permission and state an exact purpose if they wanted to leave their villages.
Decree 2: (1761) the term "Zigani", which was commonly used for the Roma at that time, was replaced by the terms new citizen, new farmer, new Hungarian or new settler. They were supposed to give up their old ways of life. Their old name. This would supposedly accelerate the process of integration. "Gypsy boys" would learn a trade or be recruited for military service at the age of sixteen if they were fit for service.
Decree 3: (1767) Maria Theresa had the jurisdiction withdrawn from the Voivods, a military force, and all "gypsies" became subject to the local jurisdiction. At the same time, they were ordered to register and - based on this registration - conscriptions were carried out for the first time.
Decree 4:(1773) prohibited marriages between Roma. Mixed marriages were encouraged by subsidies. The permission to get married, however, was bound to an attestation of "a proper way of life and knowledge of the Catholic religious doctrine". Since the Empress and her counselors were of the opinion that the "civilization" of the "gypsies” was the basis for a successful "domiciliation", she ordered that all children over the age of five should be taken away from their parents and be handed over to a Hungarian farmer’s family who were supposed to take charge of their Christian upbringing against payment. The children should grow up isolated from their own parents in different areas, go to school and later learn a trade or become farmers.
Although Maria Theresa’s successor and son, Josef II released the Roma of Buchowina that had been living in bondage, he continued the policies of assimilation started by his mother.
Issued in 1783, the guide lines ""de Domiciliatione et Regulatione Zingarorum" enforced assimilation even more rigorously. Not only were more restrictions - such as the compulsory adoption of the clothing and the language of the village people - imposed on the Roma, but they were also threatened with harsh punishment for offences against these restrictions.
For the use of the "gypsy language", for example, the law provided a flogging with 24 blows. Despite the sanctions ordered in case of offences, the coercive measures imposed by Maria Theresa and Joseph II were effective only to a certain degree. They only succeeded permanently in what is known as Burgenland today, where the Roma actually settled down and have stayed up to the present. A large number of Roma were successfully assimilated there: frequently children did not return to their own parents, stayed on the farms of their foster parents or learned a trade and married into a non-Roma-family.
In a few towns the Roma assimilated completely into the village population. The process of assimilation is mirrored in the disappearance of the formerly family names in the population of the "gypsies".
In other territories of the monarchy, however, the Roma offered resistance against the way of life ordered by the state; they evaded the harsh compulsory measures and took to the road again. The state at this time lacked the necessary human resources to translate the regulations into action or to return the Roma that had escaped.
The liberal Spanish King Karl III, Carlos Tercero tried to "civilize" the "gitanos" in the same year, 1783, as Joseph II. In the 44 articles of his "pragmatica" he prohibited their wandering, the use of their language, el caló, their typical clothing, and the horse trade as well as other itinerant trades. The King wanted the "gitanos" to settle down at a place of their choice and to practice "proper" trades. There was one problem with what the king wanted and what the rest of the people wanted. Because the Roma were also rejected by the rest of the population - towns and their citizens refused to take the Roma in and employ them. The "gitanos" continued practicing their itinerant trades but under even more difficult and impoverished circumstances. (Romani World)
Others like Dusan Jovanocic may remember how being labeled as a gypsy meant being labeled as a beggar, rapist, thieves or even vampires. Jovanocic unfortunately won’t be able to express his opinion of the EU because he along with a pregnant woman were beaten to death just for being a Roma. That occurred in 1997, not so long ago.
Many of the older generation will remember the Holocaust and how many Rom where deported along with the Jews. They were placed in concentration camps, beaten and murdered.
One would think in a country that was oppressed by so many tolerance would be a way of life. But I guess everyone needs someone to hate, because tolerance for the Roma people is not easily found in
Are the Roma waiting for an up rise? Tibor Olah, 26, stated, “Maybe it is our own fault we are not organized. We should organize to fight for our rights.”
For centuries Roma have been persecuted by the Europeans, they have been tortured and their families separated. But they continue to prevail through sweat, blood and many tears. There is an old Roma saying that goes like this: “Bury me standing: all my life I’ve been forced to kneel”.
Today’s generation of Roma may be making headway but there is still a daily oppression that weighs on them, “The looks of suspicion when a Roma enters the room are something I’ll have to live and deal with for the rest of my life,” 20-year-old Monika said. Monika along with Alfonz are just a few of the many Roma who are determined not let the hatred and prejudice stop them from achieving their dreams. Monika believes human rights are something no person, culture or race should be denied.
So in conclusion what is the answer to the question can the Roma perspective be changed? The answer is one I can’t give but I can give an opinion. I believe as Alfonz, Monika and many others believe, if the Roma do not join together as a unified voice they will never be heard.
A lot of small voices mingled together sound like chaos but one united voice can be heard over the mountains.
For more Blogs on the Summer I International Studies in Budapest, Hungary