Today, with the continued isolation and persecution of the Roma, the need for developed Romani media is great. But the Romani media remain at an embryonic stage of development. As Romani activist and writer Dragoljub Ackovic writes, no solution will be found until the Roma have "established their own state with all the accompanying institutions. Until then, the Roma will have to solve this problem in accordance with the possibilities granted to them by others."

The history of the Romani media is full of paradoxes. The first publication devoted to Romani issues was initiated by non-Roma. In 1888, The Journal of The Gypsy Lore Society appeared in England. That magazine, now based in the United States, still publishes a wide variety of articles about the Roma. In the following 99 years, on average, one Roma paper was started or published each year. The aggregate circulation of all those publications would reach 500,000. (In comparison, The New York Times' daily circulation exceeds 1 million.) In addition, on average, each publication only lasted ten issues, with fewer than 10 percent of them published in Romani.

The development of the Romani press after World War II helped spread the truth about the Roma. But with no institutionalized media environment, the Romani press never consistently influenced the public's perception of the Roma. In general, development of the Romani media has been primarily stymied by the nature of East European communist regimes and by the policy of assimilation carried out in Western societies. Under that policy, the Roma were given the "right" and "freedom" to get "new" non-Romani names, such as Uj Magyar [New Hungarian], and Nuevo Castellano [New Spaniard]; the "right" to become Czech or Slovak, or to declare their ethnicity as the once-politically correct Yugoslav.

Bilingual magazines are a recent trend. They are published mostly by Roma and are intended to attract as wide a readership as possible. The publications were initially met with enthusiasm and gave the appearance of a large-scale Romani-run media. In reality, non-Roma still controlled the vast majority of Romani media throughout Europe and that media cocktail, overall, left a bitter taste.

Romani radio and television have proven the most broadly accepted and suitable methods of modern communication among the Roma. Some 20 years ago, the first Romani programs were broadcast in Macedonia and Serbia (which still provide the widest variety of Romani programs). But Romani radio and television programming in Europe is facing myriad problems. For example, the Romani program on Romanian state television presents news, cultural information, and, of course, music-from midnight to 12:30 a.m., once a week. I have been told that many Roma do not go to sleep those nights before seeing their television program. In Poland, the Romani program is broadcast once a month for five minutes. Other problems concern biased editorial policies, the lack of freedom of expression that Romani journalists face on their programs; the status of Romani journalists in comparison to their non-Romani colleagues, and whether the programs are allowed wider national impact.

Additionally, many countries set up radio and television programs for Roma in order to demonstrate a commitment to democratic principles, such as equality of peoples and cultures and free use of minority languages. The actual production of such programs, however, has helped identify the real problem: low ratings are often interpreted to mean that a program should be canceled.

Modern media should act as links between different peoples and cultures. A dilemma exists between the principles of objectively informing an audience about a society-including the social, cultural, and political spheres-and the approach of non-Romani bosses, who often explicitly say what information can or cannot be broadcast. In other words, the outside world is censoring what Roma can and can't know. What is the role of the Romani media if someone-a non-Rom-produces it only to suit herself or himself?

Consequently, the result has been a reduction in knowledge of the so-called minority cultures, which are denied access to television and radio. In the revitalization process of those cultures-including the Romani culture-use of the minority languages must be included, both to preserve the languages and to transmit effectively the culture of their readers and viewers.

Learning to Take the Reins

Among the non-Roma, there have always been true philanthropists where the Romani media are concerned. But the number is decreasing as the number of those who exploit Roma culture and media for their personal benefit increases. Hence, the following question: are the Roma responsible for this situation, to any degree?

The inert and inappropriate behavior of the Roma has given others a free hand to run the Roma media for them. It happened because the educated Roma forgot that their place is among their people, forgot the lessons learned from other peoples' histories. The concept of the intelligentsia as champion of emancipation has sunk into oblivion. Romani journalists will have to learn to write for their own people the best way they can. Then, no one will have the right to say that non-Roma are to be blamed or given credit for the conditions in which the Roma find themselves.

One goal of Romani media is to bring to the fore discussions on the problem of "Romahood" (Romipe, Romanipe) and the historic origins of the Roma. Those two issues are so important because of the poor elementary education Romani children receive in most national educational systems. A Romani child receives no Romani history in school. Czechs, Russians, and Spaniards all learn about their famous fellow countrymen. A Rom, ridiculed and rejected by many, is denied education that would allow him or her to identify with a hero or a distinguished representative of Roma culture or politics. Is there such a thing as a Romani hero or someone who symbolizes the Romani culture? They certainly exist and always have existed. But who has ever heard of Durmish Aslano, a courageous fighter against fascism in Yugoslavia during World War II? Or even Cinka Panna, the phenomenal violin player born in Slovakia 300 years ago? How would a German, a Hungarian, a Croat, an Italian, a Slovak, or a Czech minority feel if its culture were ignored? In such circumstances, a national majority will treat a people without its own history or language with condescension.

Those two issues, "Romahood" and historic origin, are very important to expanding and deepening the notion of Romani culture and history. It seems that today's more or less democratic societies have made it possible and sometimes even mandatory for Roma to become an integral part of those societies, with or without their ethnicity, culture, and language. Thus, it is all the more important that the Romani media contribute to the construction of a political and cultural framework.

At a June media conference in Budapest, Romani media makers expressed some of their political aims: to help preserve Romani dialects and cultural diversity within Europe; to ensure that European unity maintains its varied cultures and languages as a base; and to consider the central role of communications of minority languages, in this case, the Romani language. Communicating in Romani not only spreads cultural wealth, but it also entitles its speakers participation in a collective creation of culture. The task of linguistic preservation is thus a part of the process of European construction and the safeguarding of Europe's identity in the frame of media.

Translated by Ana Davico.

Copyright © Transitions Vol. 4, No. 4 September 1997.
Reprinted by the Patrin Web Journal with permission.