Young Gypsy Travellers’ lives: discrimination and on-line media

Date: 28th July 2014
Category: Non-discrimination

Article 12 has released a report detailing the findings of Year 3 of their annual media audit, indicating an increase in negative and victimised reporting of Gypsy/Travellers.

Article 12 in Scotland is clear that misleading and unbalanced articles are a key driving force in the discrimination experienced by Gypsy/Travellers living in Scotland, and indeed the UK as a whole.

This is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which requires State Parties to respect and ensure the rights enshrined in the Convention to every child without discrimination of any kind and irrespective of any status, including sex, language, political or other opinion, social origin, and disability.

This report will form an important part of the research for the final, more comprehensive, report which will be published at the end of the current Young Gypsy Travellers' Lives project in 2015.

It concludes that, once again, the on-line media, both here in Scotland and UK wide, is guilty of publishing a disproportionate amount of articles about the Gypsy/Traveller community, of which nearly two thirds are of an overwhelmingly negative tone.

The report makes a number of recommendations which relate to the lack of adequate sites, an increase in more neutral and ethical reporting and more self-regulation with regards to biased reporting on the Gypsy/Traveller community.

• Download the Article 12 report here.