No.07-00-361/2015-02  Date: 7 September 2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint lodged by organisations LCFHRY and DCFY against a weekly paper “H.N.” of S. in connection with the article entitled “Egg throwing: frenzy of the Roma – throwing eggs at senior citizens”, published on 10 June 2015. The complaint alleged that the text of the article was full of claims and generalisations regarding members of the Roma national minority and that it was discriminatory. E.L, Newspaper Publishing Manager in the “H.N.” Ltd, declared that she was not authorised to review and control the texts to appear in the press. V.T, editor-in-chief of the weekly “H.N.”, said that right after the publication of this article the editorial board of the weekly “H.N.” published an apology of the editor-in-chief and of the journalist E.R. on the website of the paper “H.N.” and in the first subsequent issue of the weekly and that he was very sorry because of the publication of this article. In the course of the procedure it was established that the article “Egg throwing: frenzy of the Roma – throwing eggs at senior citizens” sent a message that in S. a group of children and young people throw eggs at their senior fellow citizens and that people have, for years, been afraid to go alone to the cemetery next to the B. road because they could be robbed. The Roma national minority was, in the whole article, put in the foreground and it can be concluded from the text that the Roma are the ones who throw eggs at senior fellow citizens and rob those who come to the cemetery. It was also established that the editorial board of “H.N.”, in the weekly’s issue no.24, apologized for publishing the article “Egg throwing: frenzy of the Roma – throwing eggs at senior citizens” in the previous issue of the paper, which, it was stated, had “fallen into the error of generalisation”. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality issued the opinion that the weekly “H.N”, by publishing the text which expresses disturbing and humiliating attitudes and ideas, violated the dignity of members of the Roma national minority, thus breaching the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. E.L, manager in the company publishing the weekly, did not violate the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination since she is not responsible for the content and editorial policy of the weekly “H.N.”. V.T, editor-in-chief of the weekly “H.N.” of S, was recommended by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality not to publish articles in the future insulting the dignity of members of the Roma national minority and encouraging prejudice towards them, and to contribute, through its articles, to the changing of patterns, customs and practices leading to stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against the Roma national minority.