Annual Report 2014 - Discrimination and the Roma community

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Discrimination and the Roma Community 2014
3. Huesca. The media. Direct discrimination. Several fights broke out in “Huesca’s party district” in which some
Roma youth were involved and in one of them a Roma man hit a member of the national police force. Several
hard copy and digital newspapers covered the incident (Diario del Alto Aragón, Heraldo de Huesca, radiohuesca.
com) and clearly stressed the fact that those involved in the brawls were Roma.
An example is the headline of the story in the Heraldo de Aragón “Two more young people arrested in relation
to the fights in Huesca’s party district. The police commissioner calls on the Roma patriarchs to put an end to
the fighting.” The Diario del Alto Aragón ran a similar story: The alleged instigator of the fights in the “District”
is put in prison.
Following the social tension detected underlying these incidents, the head of the FSG’s Equal Treatment Depart-
ment and the coordinator of the FSG’s Huesca chapter held a meeting with the provincial police commissioner
and offered the local administrations, police forces and the Roma community their mediation services to help
resolve any potential conflicts.
At that meeting, the Commissioner made racist remarks such as “obviously a Gypsy is more suspect of criminal
behaviour than anyone else”; regarding the confrontation with Roma young people, “it’s been a while since I had
so much fun,” etc.
FSG representatives in Huesca spoke with journalists from the different media (Radio Huesca, cadena Cope,
Diario del Alto Aragón, Heraldo de Aragon) and complained about the fuss being made in the press about the
fact that Roma were involved in the incident. They called on the media to be more fair in order to prevent the
damage that is caused by making generalisation about the Roma community.
4. Huesca. The media. Direct discrimination. The newspaper Heraldo de Aragon ran a story under the following
headline: “A former Guardia Civil admitted forming part of a criminal gang that robbed Gypsy families”.
Throughout the rest of the article, Roma are associated with drugs trafficking and crime. Headlines like this
reinforce stereotypes and prejudices towards the Roma community in general.
5. Asturias. Internet. Direct discrimination. While doing a google.es search for information on an event that
took place in Aviles that apparently involved Roma, the first reference that appeared was the Car Forum which
featured a series of discriminatory and humiliating comments about Roma, including the deceased.
Many of the forum participants cheered and laughed about the different comments made such as:
A real pity that it was only one, apparently hundreds were there in a half hour’s time.
“A man dies” is the wrong headline. It should say “A Gypsy dies”.
It makes me feel ashamed. We’ve read that a Gypsy has been gunned down in the street but nobody
speaks of naming a street after the bullet that killed him. What a shame.
Close call. When I first read the story I thought that a person had died.
Well ... it is true that a Gypsy can be man’s best friend. I hope he recovers. To the fuckin bonfire with
the lot of em ...
These comments are evidence of the deep-rooted prejudice, hatred and racism against the Roma community,
and even promote violence against them.
6. Salamanca. The media. Direct discrimination. The Salamanca newspaper called El Adelanto published a story
about events that took place in Zamora. A man, who according to the journalist was “of Roma origin”, forcibly
held five people captive at the premises of an insurance company.