Valorization of Roma culture and governmental policies in media reporting

Belgrade, April 16 – The Dosta! campaign media training will be held in May 15-16 in Belgrade, Serbia, with persons involved in monitoring programmers/action plans, and media professionals. The aim of this training is to improve the visibility of governmental actions and efforts for Roma, as well as to suggest to journalists how to avoid stereotypes when dealing with Roma; it will focus on communication and reporting, as well as on Roma cultural features and traditions. Persons in charge of Roma issues (spokespersons) at governmental level will be trained by Council of Europe media experts on how to better inform journalists and the majority society about their valuable work, while journalists will be trained to approach Roma issues, culture and traditions avoiding stereotyping information. Such a workshop will help governmental officials, local authorities, media professionals and Roma leaders to improve their capacity to address journalists and the majority population about the needs for targeted action for Roma, as well as make Roma and the rest of the population aware of the benefits of these programmes and action plans. Participating countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Macedonia.