Csaba Sógor in the EP: Collective stigmatization of a community and media manipulation does hinders true dialogue
The collective stigmatisation of a community will hinder dialogue and discussion on important issues that we have had little of to this day in Romania – stated Csaba Sógor during the December plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Monday evening.
The RMDSZ MEP stressed in his speech: the Hungarian community of Romania has been baffled in the past few weeks by the fact that the Romanian authorities accused a small town business owner, local leader of a far-right organisation, with attempted terrorist attacks, even though during the house search have only found firecrackers. ”We have every confidence that the court will make a wise decision in this regard, but until then the media is generating massive frenzy on the subject, the target of which is the entire Hungarian community of Romania ” – he pointed out. Csaba Sógor stated that the Hungarian community, and even a part of the Romanian journalists feel that the goal might be to create interethnic tension, for which, in the context of Europe’s current security threats, the sheer mention of terrorism is more than enough.
The MEP pointed out: The collective stigmatisation of a community will hinder dialogue and discussion on important issues that we have heard little about to this day in Romania. In his opinion such issues are the right to the use one's mother tongue, the infringement on the rights to use community symbols, the selective application of the education act or the church property restitution process being halted. “There is a need for a real dialogue in Romania between the minority and the majority communities on these issues. What we don’t need is media manipulation and the collective stigmatization of a community” – said Csaba Sógor.
