Challenges and opportunities for Roma voices in the Hungarian media space

The founder of the Roma Press Center (RPC) Gábor Bernáth told me that before the advent of Web 2.0 it was easy to identify unhelpful narratives in the mainstream news, identify the gatekeeper of those messages, and involve watchdogs or media owners to correct course. [...] As Messing and Bernáth explained: “Minority media is one of the most important tools for maintaining the identity patterns of the given minority, it is a place for internal self-organisation, and for internal control of minority politics.” 22 Other roles of minority-owned media include: • Reaching the minority with information which the majority media doesn’t provide them; • Uniting the Roma commu. [...] “We didn’t set out to change the majority’s discriminative attitude towards the Roma; we believed that was the responsibility of the state, the education system, and the mainstream media. [...] One of these is Ame Panzh (meaning “the five of us” in Romani), which came to life as a podcast during the COVID-19 pandemic.30 The podcast features conversations between five young Roma intellectuals, talking about issues not being addressed in public life and the mistakes made by the mainstream media in reporting on the Roma community. [...] It is one repeated by minority groups around the globe: “Nothing about us without us.” 21 Contents Introduction A brief history of the Roma in Hungary World War II and its aftermath The Socialist Era: 1956-1989 The progressive 1990s The 2006 Olaszliszka incident Why does media coverage matter? The decline and dispersal of Roma voices The promise of minority-owned media Challenges and opportunities.