Roma Press Center – 20 years of making a difference

ABSTRACT

The Roma Press Center (RPC) is the first Roma news agency in Hungary with the goal of reducing prejudice against the Roma. Their profile has been changed throughout the years, since the technological developments of the media and the political and economic changes of the country challenged their way of effectiveness. Until recently, the RPC was always about reacting to the negative stories about the Roma and balancing this image in the media. In the last 3 years, RPC changed its attitude by becoming a proactive media organisation which directly participates in shaping the public discourse about the Roma with their work. The interview with the two decisive characters of the RPC tells about this process.

KEYWORDS:

• Media
• representation
• identity
• racism
• Hungarian Roma civil-rights movement
• Roma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. MTI (Magyar Távirati Iroda) is a Hungarian public news agency that covers political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and sport events and provides different types of media contents about them. Many of the media organisation use them as a source. http://english.mti.hu/Pages/Login.aspx.

2. The TV show was made by a comedy team which produced parodies and was very popular at the time. The Big Fat Roma Wedding was made after the romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It’s about a Roma wedding preparation – the show wanted to be funny but the public found it prejudiced against the Roma. The show was broadcasted on 30 March 2003, and the broadcasting right of TV2 was suspended by the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) on 9 April 2003 for 30 min.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_mTFSvPMTU.http://www.origo.hu/teve/20030331azocoelnok.html http://index.hu/kultur/media/roma0331/.

3. A few years ago, many cases were revealed where Gypsies in small villages were punished by the police in for small, sometimes hardly punishable things very frequently. According to human rights organisations in Hungary, it was obvious that in most of the cases, these punishments were discriminations against the Gypsies.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZatO8Rbazg.

4. Gábor Miklósi 2014. Leesett a zsebkendője? Ötvenezer! Index.hu, July 4http://index.hu/belfold/2014/07/04/raszallt_a_ciganyokra_a_rendorseg/.

5. We are present! – International Roma Day 2015. romasajtokozpont.hu, 13 September 2015http://romasajtokozpont.hu/we-are-present-international-roma-day-2015.

6. As a part of this campaign, the Roma Press Center established the Golden Band Prize for awarding everyday Roma heroes ‘who are active, beloved and widely recognized in their community’.Golden Band Prize 2015. romasajtokozpont.hu, 16 August 2015http://romasajtokozpont.hu/golden-band-prize-2015/.