MINELRES: ERRC: Hate in the Russian Media

[European Roma Rights Center]

ERRC Letter of Concern over Anti-Romani Media Reporting in Russia

On May 28, 2002, the ERRC sent a letter to Minister of Press, Radio
Broadcast and Mass Media Mr Michail Lesin, to express concern at a
recent outbreak of anti-Romani reporting in the Russian media. Recent
reporting in a number of Russian media organs draws a strong correlation
between Roma and crime, and in some instances seems to encourage
violence against Roma by state authorities, and discriminatory measures
by landlords. In its May 28 letter, the ERRC urged Minister Lesin to act
as a moral authority by publicly calling upon journalists in Russia to
refrain from anti-Romani speech in their published work. Information on
the human rights situation of Roma in Russia is available on the
Internet at: http://errc.org/publications/indices/russia.shtml. The text
of the ERRC letter to Minister Lesin, including details of a number of
inciteful media reports, follows:

Honourable Minister Lesin,

The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the situation of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse, is concerned about the rise of
anti-Romani (anti-Gypsy) hate speech in the Russian media and a recent
campaign of identifying Roma in Russia with drug trafficking and crime.

The ERRC has received information that over the past few months,
announcements have been made on national and local television, radio and
in the press in Russia to the effect that authorities are increasing the
fight against drug trafficking. In these reports, Roma have repeatedly
been named as the main perpetrators of this criminal activity, and
frequently �drug dealer� and �Gypsy� appear to be used synonymously. For
instance, in a report about the fight against drug trafficking in the
Krasnojar Province of Russia, broadcast during the evening news on the
state channel RTR on February 25, 2002, it was reportedly explicitly
stated, without presenting any corroborative evidence, that the Roma of
the city of Krasnojarsk (apparently all Roma of Krasnojarsk) are to
blame for these crimes. As an illustration of the statement, the family
of an alleged Romani drug dealer was shown � a person who had apparently
not yet been sentenced for any crime and whose innocence should
therefore have been presumed, in accordance with international norms,
notably Article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. The broadcast showed not only the alleged drug dealer,
but also his children and grandchildren. An approximately three-year-old
Romani girl was shown, the link between drug trafficking and very small
children remaining entirely unelucidated.

Similarly, according to information received by the ERRC, on February
25, 2002, a documentary film was shown on the state television channel
RTR presenting the issue of �Gypsy drug dealers� in Jekaterinburg and
the following method of fighting this problem which was allegedly
employed: �We spread a rumour that drug dealers would be beaten and
their houses burnt � and 10 Gypsy families immediately left the city.�

On February 26, 2002, on the evening news of a private local St.
Petersburg TV channel, a similar statement was made in a programme
dealing with the issue of drug trafficking, blaming �Gypsies� for crimes
committed in connection with drug trafficking.

On February 27, 2002, a national newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets
published a humiliating and intimidating headline on its front page
�Moscow Gypsies will be crushed� and an article sarcastically entitled 
�Gypsies will soon face close relations with police�. The article reports 
the beginning of a series of actions undertaken by law
enforcement bodies called �Tabor� which, among other things, envisions
�suppressing the illegal activities of representatives of most nomadic
people�, and that �beggars, fortune-tellers, tramps, swindlers who cheat
citizens under the pretext of changing money, and simply excessively
tiresome persons of Gypsy ethnicity will be expelled with disgrace
(emphasis added) from railway stations, markets, metro stations, and
uninhabited buildings.� In addition, according to the article, �persons
who rent flats to Gypsies will be subjected to checks.� The article also
used sarcastic expressions such as �tourists� in reference to Roma.

On March 1, 2002, the state television channel ORT (OPT) in a news
programme broadcast a short film about the fight against the drug mafia
in Tyumen Province, Central Russia. It was stated in the film that in
the course of the action, approximately 1000 drug dealers were arrested,
while the camera showed an elderly Romani woman and a 7-year-old Romani
boy.

On March 11, 2002, on TV channel TVTs, the presenter of a programme
called �Events� stated that in order to justify their
�criminal inclination�, Gypsies had invented a legend about the nail
that they stole when Jesus Christ was being crucified. Also, a further
TV report by the correspondent Ms. Marina Zinovjeva about the results of
the police action code-named �Tabor�, mentioned above, claimed that
Moscow has become �awash with criminal Gypsies�. Afterwards, police
officer Mr. Alexandr Zavorotov spoke about a large quantity of drugs and
one pistol that had been confiscated from �Gypsies�, while in the
background apparently minor Romani girls were shown whose fingerprints
were being taken by the police.

On March 13, 2002, Argumenty i Fakty published an article entitled �I Am
a Heroin-Mother�. The article tells the reader about a non-governmental
organisation called �City Without Drugs� set up in Jekaterinburg, the
head of which says that as the state is incapable of effectively
fighting drug criminality, they took this task upon themselves.
Throughout the text, �Gypsies� and �drug dealers� are repeatedly used as
synonyms. The article also states: �In only two-three years, the Gypsy
settlement has become richer with red brick castles, while hospital
wards have filled up with half-dead bodies in drug coma,� connecting two
facts of which no causal link is clear.

Honourable Minister Lesin, the ERRC is concerned that articles appearing
in the Russian press incite racial hatred and contribute to a climate of
hostility against Roma. Racism is an issue of such serious international
concern that it has merited its own international convention, the UN
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, to which Russia is party. The ERRC is concerned that
Russia cannot possibly live up to its commitments under international
human rights law so long as a climate of regular and extreme racist
speech prevails in the media. We urge your office to take a firm public
stand against hate speech in the media, calling upon all journalists in
Russia to refrain from inciteful anti-Romani speech in their published
work. We would welcome further discussion of this issue with your
office.

Sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director


Persons wishing to express similar concerns are urged to contact:

Minister of Press, Radio Broadcast and Mass Media Mr Michail Lesin
Address: 101409 Moscow, Strastnoj boulevard 5, Russia
Fax: 7 095 200-2281

Mayor of Moscow, Mr. Jurij Luzhkov
Address: 103032 Moscow, Str. Tverskaja 13, Russia
Fax: 7 095 234-3297

Mr Pavel Gousev, Editor-in chief, Moskovskij Komsomolets
Address: 123995, GSP-5, Moscow, D-22, Str. 1905 goda 7, Russia
Fax: 7 095 256-9203

Mr Vladislav Starkov, Editor-in-Chief, Argumenty i Fakty
Address: 101000, Moscow, Str. Mjasnitskaja 42, Russia
Fax: 7 095 925-6182

Mr Sergej Gorjachev, Director, ORT television, Management of
Informational Programmes
Address: Moscow, Str. Korolyova 19, Russia
Fax: 7 095 217-5172

Mr Tishknin Vitalij, TVTs television, Editor-in-Chief of Informational
Programmes
Address: Moscow, Str. Bolshaja Tatarskaja 33, str.1, Russia
Fax: 7 095 215-8038

Mr Mikhail Khozhokin, Editor-in-Chief, Izvestija
Address: 127994, GSP-4, Moscow, K-8, Str. Tverskaja 18, corp.1, Russia
Fax: 7 095 209-5394


_____________________________________________

The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest law
organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence
in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the European
Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at http://www.errc.org.

European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary


Phone: +36 1 4132200
Fax:   +36 1 4132201

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