Posts Tagged: Romany minority

A question for Ilta-Sanomat: Why didn’t you mention the name of the security company and who was in the video?

An example of you-can-eat-your-racist-cake-and-have-it journalism: The chief executive of a private security firm posts a video wearing a uniform about how a member of the Romany minority shoplifts. The security firm’s representative uses his personal TikTok account to publish the racist post.   The security guard chief executive took down the video after a representative

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Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Why are shoplifting Romany women news?

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, which has had a murky history for publishing and attacking Somalis and other migrants in the 1990s, publishes a story about two Romany women who shoplift 2,600 euros of merchandise. Certainly, shoplifting is a crime, but what about when a tabloid publishes a story that reinforces stereotypes about a certain group? Considering that Ilta-Sanomat was

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Police ask Romanian Roma “to leave” Tampere

A group of Romania Roma were woken up by the police in the middle of the night as they slept in their cars in a semi-abandoned parking lot of a match factory in Tampere, reports Aamulehti. According to the Romanian Roma, the police asked them to leave Tampere, which is a clear breach of their right to

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Finland’s Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s blog entry on the Roma reveals why Europe has done so little to help this minority

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s opinion piece on Uusi Suomi about the hardships that the Romany minority face in Europe today. As she expressed concern about their plight, I could not forget her intolerant views of gays, non-Christian refugees and her silence in the face of strict

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Artist Kiba Lumberg: “Don’t box me in!”

In order to understand Kiba Lumberg, 57, you need to know some Finnish history, the plight of minorities like the Roma, and what it is like to live in worlds shaded by different hues of grey. Since this story is about an artist who doesn’t want to conform to set norms imposed on her by

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Internet policeman Marko Forss mildly reprimanded by deputy ombudsman for tweeting stereotypes of the Roma

Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman Jussi Pajuoja mildly reprimanded Internet policeman Marko Forss for tweeting a so-called joke about the Roma, reports YLE. The personal tweet, as Migrant Tales reported in November, spread and strengthened stereotypes about the Roma.  What did Forss, who was named policeman of the year in 2011, tweet? “Some funny things happen in police

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Interior Minister Räsänen disagrees with findings of police report on the Romany minority

Migrant Tales asked Monday what kinds of arguments will politicians now come up with to criminalize begging after a police report didn’t reveal any links between Romany beggars and human trafficking and organized crime. The police report not only exposed  shameful urban legends used to victimize poor Romanies from Romania and Bulgaria, who make 10-20 euros a

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Finnish police: Roma beggars are not victims of human trafficking or linked to organized crime

Remember the hostile reception that Romany beggars have got in the past from some Helsinki municipal politicians like mayor Jussi Pajunen, Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs like Olli Immonen and National Coalition Party MP Arto Satonen, who wants to make begging illegal?  The Finnish police now claims that Romanian and Bulgarian

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Ask Finland’s Romany minority about ethnic profiling by the police

Two talk shows today, one on television and another one on radio, on ethnic profiling follows a report published Tuesday by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Contrary to concerns by the ECRI, the police flatly deny in both shows that ethnic profiling takes place even if a policeman at the Helsinki Railway admitted that

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