ROMEA holding training to improve image of Roma in the media

ROMEA, o.p.s., in collaboration with the College of Media and Journalism in Prague (Vyšší odborná škola publicistiky), is holding a media training focused on practical skills for communicating with various kinds of media. The training will be given by professional journalists Roman Bradáč and Václav Sochor.  

"The way many media outlets report on Romani people contributes to an enormous extent to creating and shoring up negative attitudes and prejudices toward Romani people. Another feature of the current media scene is a low level of willingness to provide space to Romani people themselves. We want to make it possible for the Romani participants in our workshop to look behind the scenes of the media and equip them with practical advice and experience on how to hold their own during contact with journalists and not be pushed into a corner by them," says Zdeněk Ryšavý, director of ROMEA.    

Participants will not be in for hours of lectures and theory, but will mainly undertake practical training in the professional skills taught by the college, trying out what it is like to speak in various situations in front of a camera or on the radio. "In addition to analyzing their own audiovisual performances, part of the training will focus on specific excerpts from programs where a Romani man or woman’s performance was embarrassing instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to communicate something important or to stand up to the pressure of a seasoned moderator," Ryšavý says.    

The two-day training will also introduce participants to a media map of the Czech Republic, to the differences between commercial and public media, and to journalistic ethics, and will clarify what rights respondents have during their contact with the media, as well as introducing the basic principles of communicating with media outlets. The training is a component of a project endeavoring to reduce discrimination and racism through a more objective portrayal of Romani people in the Czech media.  

The program also involves daily monitoring and correction of media outputs, a Romani media service, original reporting on Romani topics for news server Romea.cz, and support for journalism students. It is supported by a grant from Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway as part of the EEA funds.