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Letter of complaint Fundación Secretariado Gitano - Die Weltwoche [editar]

10/05/2012

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The Fundación Secretariado Gitano sent last week a letter to the director of the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche complaining for the article published in its edition of 4th April. The article “Die Roma kommen: Raubzüge in die Schweiz” (“Roma are coming: raids in Switzerland”) is illustrated with the picture of a Roma boy aiming a gun to the camera, and the text makes generalizations identifying Roma with crime (see picture below).

Fundación Secretariado Gitano denounced that linking all the members of an ethnic group with crime rising, using the picture of a minor, produces a negative effect that fosters the social rejection towards this community, and threatens a fundamental right as the right to non-discrimination, which is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the EU Directive on the principle of Equal Treatment and Non-discrimination

Moreover, the use of the picture implies a manipulation of the context, because the picture was took in 2008 in Kosovo (not in Switzerland) and the gun is a toy, as was reported by the author of the picture, Livio Mancini.

In its letter Fundación Secretariado Gitano asks the director of Die Weltwoche to publish a public rectification about this article and an involvement of the magazine to combat the promotion of prejudices and stereotypes of vulnerable groups, avoiding negative generalizations about Roma or any other ethnic minority.

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