Swiss magazine censured over Roma boy cover

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Swiss magazine censured over Roma boy cover
AP / October 30, 2012

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s press watchdog has upheld a complaint against a magazine that used a picture of a Roma boy waving a gun to illustrate a story about alleged threats from Gypsy gangs.

The Swiss Press Council said Tuesday that Zurich weekly Weltwoche was guilty of ‘‘distortion’’ and ‘‘discrimination’’ for publishing the image on its cover above the headline ‘‘The Roma are coming: raids in Switzerland.’’

The picture taken in 2008 by Italian photographer Livio Mancini actually depicted a boy playing with a toy gun on a Kosovo garbage dump.

European Roma and Sinti groups condemned the cover as likely to fuel prejudice against members of the two ethnic minorities, also called Gypsies.


Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2012/10/30/swiss-magazine-censured-over-roma-boy-cover/AH6RJMlXXm7L6rDtusCmcL/story.html

[limpyhobbler]

1. same story, another view...

did a google search looking for angles and found this story from April

Swiss mag uses Roma child with a gun to push scare story

Die Weltwoche, a conservative Swiss magazine with ties to the right-wing Swiss People's Party recently published an alarmist article under the title - "The Roma Are Coming: Plunder in Switzerland."

The photo accompanying the article shows a Roma child who looks to be about 4 years-old pointing a handgun at the camera. The photo has no relation whatever to Switzerland and very little relation to the story aside from sensation value.

The photo was in fact taken in Kosovo, a region ravaged by war where ethnic cleansing impacted the pre-1999 Romani population, resulting in the widespread expulsion, abuse and killing of so-called "gypsies." Entire Romani communities were devastated and many people went missing.

Italian photographer Livio Mancini encountered the child used in the Weltwoche story at a garbage dump in the Kosovar city of Gjakova in 2008. The child's family lived at the garbage site and made a meager living recycling found items. The child and his peers knew only life in the dump - "a poisoned and diseased playground."
...

http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2012/04/swiss-mag-uses-roma-child-with-gun-to.html

[slackmaster]

2. The image is reminiscent of the work of Diane Arbus

[reACTIONary]

3. One of my favorites by Diane Arbus, because...

...the kid looks just like my younger brother did. Always makes me smile.

[slackmaster]

4. He's really a cute kid IMO

[Overseas]

5. I'm glad they're watching out for racism.

[loli phabay]

6. the story aside i wonder why they used that pic, im sure they could have found someone to pose

for them, its not as if there are no weapons in the camps. I hate lazy journalism with a passion.