Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: The Portrayal of Romani People in ...

Romani people and Travellers we may assume that the same observation also applies here.
“war” on “gypsies free-for-all”
In March 2005, the Sun opened with the headline, “Sun war on gypsies free for all”. Underneath, the
newspaper wrote in huge, red capitals, “Meet your neighbour”, and continued in small letters “… thanks to
John Prescott”. The text was set off by the photograph of two caravan trailers with a bunch of men strolling
around. A smoke screen in the background completed a picture of desolation reminiscent of a civil war.
This was not the Sun’s first crusade against Romani people and Travellers. One year before, Roma from
Eastern Europe were the targets of the Sun and other British tabloids, which announced that 1,6 million Roma
would be waiting to “invade” the British Isles after the entry of the central and east European states into the
EU.
Are the media biased against Roma? A 2004 survey on minorities in the media concluded: “Sinti and
Roma/Travellers are the group most often portrayed negatively”. It found that in one third of the articles
analysed, the portrayal of Sinti and Roma was negative and in half of the cases it was neutral. 5
The author noticed that neutral reporting is more frequent for people from different ethnic groups which “may
indicate a lower threshold for mentioning ethnicity” in the case of the Roma and “a higher probability of this
group appearing in news associated with negative facts, or the existence of more negative and persistent
stereotypes about Sinti and Roma.” 6
In the following article, I look into the portrayal of Romani people and Travellers and the images they suggest.
Over several months, I followed reporting on Roma using the Internet as a main source. I analysed articles,
which I found via the Google news search engine, but I have also used the archives of different newspapers
and magazines.
I have concentrated on English, French and German media, which implies that the scope of my findings is
necessarily limited. Journalistic codes of conduct and practice vary from country to country, which also has an
impact how ethnic minorities are portrayed. As regards the Romani people this concerns also the use of
terminology where the same terminology may appear as acceptable in one country and not acceptable in the
other.
Talking about differences it is furthermore important to notice that there is another common difference between
inter/national and regional/local media and the broadsheet and tabloid press. While the former may appear
more objective, concentrating on issues such as the social marginalisation and discrimination of Romani
people, the latter frequently associate Roma with trouble-making and crime. Though the sample used for this
research does not provide sufficient evidence for this type of statement it may be assumed that the ideological
orientation of a newspaper has a lesser impact.
Generally speaking it is possible to identify common patterns with regard to the way Sinti and Roma are
represented in the media: they have their origin in the prevailing stereotypes and racist prejudices against
Romani people, which are shared and reproduced by the media. Many of these patterns may also be found in
reporting about other groups such as refugees and asylum seekers or non-EU immigrants. What seems to
distinguish negative reporting on Romani people from negative reporting on other ethnically defined groups is
was even higher: 44 percent for readers of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday and 43 percent for the readers of the Sun and
News of the World expressed negative views. Inversely, the researchers found that readers of the Guardian and the Observer
would be the less likely to express prejudice against refugees/asylum seekers (15 percent).
5 Jessika ter Wal: Quantitative analysis of daily press and TV contents in the 15 EU Member States, March 2004, at:
http://www.multicultural.net/edmm/edmm_eureport.pdf
6 ibid.