Book Description

The full participation of members of minority communities in the mainstream media and their capacity to develop their own media outlets are building blocks for multicultural values and for the promotion of minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe. While law should protect and promote minorities’ access to the media, the level of access varies between countries. In the same country, different groups may have significantly different degrees and quality of access. Some governments are reluctant to facilitate minority access to the media, either because of narrow political considerations or because of lingering ethnonationalist conceptions of the state. Additional barriers are created when media decision-makers do not prioritize enabling access and/or the coverage of minority issues. Other problems stem from resource constraints, particularly the financing necessary to produce minority programming. Nevertheless, the dynamic nature of this sector means that a combination of effective advocacy, business savvy and high quality media productions have resulted in increased media access in some countries or for some minorities. To explore these issues, Minority Rights Group International and Foundation Citizen and Democracy/MRG-Slovakia organized a skills exchange workshop in Bratislava, Slovakia, in February 1999. The workshop brought together media and legal professionals, and minority rights activists from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Through facilitated discussion, the group identified major issues, prioritized them for analysis and discussed strategies to address them. Participants examined the legal framework regulating the media in their country and the governmental policies, administrative practices and political interests that shape it. They also discussed increasing minority access through minorities’ own media and through participation in the mainstream media, as well as portrayal of minorities in the media. Throughout, they analysed the many practical and political difficulties faced by minorities in the media and shared examples of how these problems are being addressed in their own country. This report summarizes the key points raised in these discussions and describes examples of good practice that exist in the region.