This is an Al Jazeera stream on the topic of how Romani women are using arts and other media to overcome discrimination. It features Lisa Smith, an ACERT Vice-chair and is an interesting and challenging resource.
Category: Media
Roma Children in Care
‘The report’ on Radio 4 was broadcast on Thursday 20th. December 2012, it is well worth a listen.
Following the row over Rotherham council’s decision to remove three foster children from a couple because of their support for UKIP, Simon Cox investigates concerns about the high number of Roma children being taken into care.
Here is the links:
Article:
Roma children: Britain’s hidden care problem
By Simon Cox
BBC Radio 4’s The Report
Download (13MB) audio.
How low will Channel 4 stoop?
A Guardian report shows the efforts that Channel 4 went to achieve the stereotypical and sensationalised images used in the advertising campaign recently criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority.
A Channel 4 art director tried to persuade the photographer working on its censured Big Fat Gypsy Weddings poster campaign to take pictures of “a very young girl pretending to be a bride” and also a “dirty kiss … with tongue” in a revealing email.
Pablo Gonzalez de la Pena, an art director with the broadcaster, emailed Elisabeth Blanchet, the photographer commissioned to deliver images for the controversial “Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier” ad campaign, in January asking her to “do what it takes” to get the controversial shots he wanted.
In the email de la Pena suggests he wants to see a photograph with “a dirty kiss between a couple, with tongue”; “a toilet, ideally an outdoor one [where] we can see the tail of a wedding dress coming out from it, like a bride has just used”; and “a very young girl pretending to be a bride”.
The photographer, who refused to cooperate, gives her side of the story with powerful examples of how the selection and choice of images and cropping exaggerated Channel 4s racist perceptions.
Advertising Standards Authority condemn Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier advertising campaign
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today (Wednesday 03/10/2012) announced that Channel 4’s “Bigger Fatter Gypsier” billboard advertising campaign was irresponsible, endorsed prejudice against Gypsies and Travellers, was guilty of depicting a child in a sexualised way, and was likely to have caused mental and moral harm to children. Details of the case can be found on the ITMB website.
ACERT compiled evidence from teachers across the country on the impact that the programmes and the advertising campaign had on relations between Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils and other children in school. One teacher described how staff and children anticipated each new series with dread.