The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, met in Petrovac na Mlavi with the president of the National Council of Vlachs, Novica Janošević, and his associates, with whom she discussed the situation in the field of achieving equality and protection against discrimination of the Vlach national minority. The visit was carried out as a series of planned tours of the councils of national minorities after the training for recognizing and reacting to discrimination last year.

At the meeting, it was concluded that there are no significant challenges in realizing the rights of the Vlach national minority, which is confirmed by the Commissioner’s practice and the insignificant number of complaints since the institution started to operate.

The representatives of the National Council welcomed the reaction of the Commissioner in which she recently condemned inappropriate statements about the customs and speech of members of the Vlach national minority in some media and stressed that the politicization of any individual case should not be allowed and that it should be left to the competent authorities to react. Commissioner Janković reminded that criminal responsibility is personal, and that, when reporting on a criminal or other illegal act, it is not allowed to emphasize national, ethnic, or other affiliation unless this characteristic is essential for correctly understanding the information being published.

The participants of the meeting agreed that the media must not allow the spread and support of stereotypes in their reporting, and the Commissioner announced that she would recommend measures to the media to create content that promotes tolerance, mutual respect, and appreciation of diversity, as well as expression, nurturing and public display of national and ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic distinctiveness as part of the tradition of members of national minorities.

Commissioner Janković also met with the president of the municipality of Petrovac na Mlavi, Duško Nedinić, with whom she discussed the importance of equality and improving citizens’ quality of life. There was also talk of greater participation of women in political life.