Speakers: Štefan Balog
Moderator: Jeremy Druker
December 4th, 2020, 18:35-18:45 CET
This interview was organized in cooperation with the Czech-German Future Fund.
Written by Martina Kroa
Key words: Roma, Roma Issues, Media, Online Media, Success
Short annotation, summary
This ten-minute interview with Štefan Balog of Romea.cz, the most-visited Romani news server in the Czech Republic, focused on its introduction and factors behind its success since they have been stable in reporting about Roma issues for more than 15 years.
The project or approach to be discussed in the session
Štefan Balog explained that Romea.cz is reporting online about Roma issues mainly in the Czech Republic, but also from all around in Europe along with the Slovak region. They cover Roma issues, Roma social problems (housing) as well as politics connected to these topics and are trying to inform the public about them. He also stressed that next to informing, they are trying to offer solutions to these problems. He also unveiled what stands behind their success as well as explained how Roma issues are covered by the mass media.
Evidence of impact
The Prague Media Point organizer and moderator Jeremy Druker and his words can serve as evidence of impact as he pointed out that many organizations covering Roma issues over the past 25 years have come and gone, but Romea.cz has been doing a stable and good job for more than 15 years. Jeremy’s words on this are: “There’s something definitely working with Romea.” Štefan Balog also pointed out that mass media channels ask them to help and sometimes they have to correct major media articles regarding Roma issues.
Limitations, risks of the approach provided by the speaker
There weren’t many limitations, the message of this interview was mostly positive, but the limitation could be just that their work is oftentimes looked negatively at by the Czechs since Romas are a controversial minority in the Czech Republic. Štefan Balog also pointed out that there are a lot of hoaxes about Roma issues in the media and they try to correct them as well as offer solutions to existing problems, not just inform the public about them. Hard work is the way, he says.
Takeaways
1. The most-visited Romani news server in the Czech Republic, Romea.cz, is reporting online about Roma issues mainly in the Czech Republic with a stable and successful history.
2. “We are not just informing about Roma issues, but we are also trying to offer solutions for those problems” - Štefan Balog
3. The main success behind Romea is hard work, the loyalty of many good journalists as well as new blood of journalists.
Other considerations
There are a lot of hoaxes in Czech media regarding Roma issues.
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