Annual Report Discrimination 2015

Discrimination and the Roma community, 2015

Sestao.

Media and the Internet.

Hate speech.

The online newspaper diarioelnorte.es and other media pub-

lished excerpts of an audio recording of the Mayor of Sestao featuring racist and xenophobic comments about

immigrants and Roma.

“The shit no longer comes to Sestao. I’ll make sure that they leave; I’ll make life miserable for them (...)

nobody in any of the municipalities wants Gypsies (...) not many good Gypsies out there”.

The FSG, together with other social organisations, expressed our misgivings with these statements and called

for the resignation of the mayor.

The FSG put out a statement expressing our alarm with these racist and xenophobic statements against the

Roma community. The mayor did not resign. He is still a public official.

Unfortunately most of these cases go unpunished.

Galicia.

Press.

Direct discrimination.

The online version of the newspaper Faro de Vigo published an article

entitled “Narcos from Arousa supplied cocaine to a network in which two police officers were arrested”.

The article employed terms such as the “King of the Gypsies” which, in the context of the story, was offensive

since it linked the Roma community to crime and drug trafficking.

The Department sent a written complaint to the newspaper requesting that it refrain from using these terms as

they add nothing to the news report but do tarnish the image of the Roma community.

CASE 2