Indicator history

Radio and television programmes in minority languages

According to the Romanian Audiovisual Law [1] the National Audiovisual Council (Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului) is responsible for safeguarding the national minority’s cultures and languages, including through monitoring the correct use of these languages.  Moreover, it states that in localities in which a national minority represents over 20% of the total population, broadcasters shall provide broadcasting services which are free for retransmission in the respective national minority language.[2]

Law no. 41/1994 [3] states that the national public radio and television, in order to ensure  audiovisual programmes in minority or regional languages, pursue the following objective: “production of radio or television programmes in national minority languages or in other languages with an informative, cultural, educative or entertainment purpose”. The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Society and the Romanian Television Society have the task to promote national minorities’ values and, as Article 7 paragraph (3) of the same law mentions, to include in the minimum of 30% of European programmes broadcasted, additionally to the Romanian programmes, programmes which are specific for the national minorities." [4]

The Romanian Television Society (Societatea Română de Televiziune - SRTV) telecasts also a series of programmes in national minority languages. According to Romania's Initial Periodical Report on the Implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages it can be asserted that 2008 represented a crucial year for the national minorities’ programmes. For the first time, the distinction between programmes in the
minority languages (subtitled in Romanian) and programmes about national minorities in Romanian is made.[5]

The Report on the implementation of The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Romania of the Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center (EDRC) shows that "[i]n order to cater for Romania’s 20 national minorities, at present, TVR’s schedule includes programmes in: Hungarian, German, Serbian, Bulgarian, Croat, Russian, Turkish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian (of the languages included in Part III of the Charter Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, adopted in Strasbourg in 1992 and ratified by the Romanian Parliament through Law 282 of 2007), and Tatar, Greek, Romani (from the languages included in Part II of the Charter). In addition to these, TVR also broadcasts programmes in Romanian about the life and culture of the Polish, Italian, Armenian, Albanian, Ruthenian, Jewish and Macedonian communities."

But, EDRC also states that "there should be pointed  out some aspects which must be taken into consideration in the evaluation of these programmes’ contribution to the protection of regional and minority languages: the duration of broadcast is very short in the case of some languages; unfavourable broadcasting hours – especially in the first part of the afternoon when the audience is composed mainly of children and senior citizens; the relevance of these programmes for the daily life of the communities - the broadcasted mostly present events which are significant for the communities with aspects related to religion, traditions and customs; the quality of the broadcasted materials - relevant aspects from this point of view are the low audiences of these shows (explained also by the broadcasting hours), low production budgets, the fact that for some languages the stations do not have their own employed language users and work with collaborators, the lack of studies regarding the needs and interests of the audience and the limited means of consulting with the public used by producers. [6]

In addition to shows in minority languages, public radio station and television channels include programmes in Romanian about the life of ethnic communities, for example Cohabitations (Convietuiri) on TVR, in the attempt to promote mutual knowledge and respect for diversity, including linguistic diversity. [7]

Publications in minority languages

As reported by EDRC "[p]art of the communities that represent national minorities have publication in their language (some with bi-lingual content) published by organizations of the respective minorities.  These usually are weekly, monthly or even quarterly magazines and cover subjects related to the minorities’ culture, customs and language. Some of the organizations’ of small minorities publish separately an extra literal publication in their mother tongue. These publications are usually financed by founds which the minorities’ organizations receive from the Department for Inter-ethnic Relations. Published in small scale, from a few hundred to 1,500 copies, these magazines are generally distributed free of charge to communities through worship places, mother tongue schools, town halls and branches of minority’s organizations. One can talk about written press published on a regular basis – daily or weakly – only in the cases of Hungarian and German." [8]

Source:

[1] Law no. 504/2002 on audiovisual, available at http://www.cna.ro/Legea-audiovizualului.html (Date of access: 12.03.2012.)

[2] Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center (2009) Report on the implementation of The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Romania, Chapter on Media, page 1, available at http://www.edrc.ro/docs/docs/carta/Report-Lang-Charter-MM-final-ENG.pdf (Date of access: 20.02.2012.)

[3] Law no. 41/1994 regarding the organization and functioning of Romanian Radio Broadcast Society and the Romanian Television Society, republished, available at http://www.cna.ro/LEGE-Nr-41-din-17-iunie-1994,2196.html (Date of access: 12.03.2012.)

[4] Ibid. [2], p 1-2

[5] See Initial Periodical Report on the Implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Romania (2010), p. 108, available at http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/Report/PeriodicalReports/RomaniaPR1_en.pdf (Date of access: 20.02.2012.)

[6] Ibid. [2], p 5

[7] Ibid. [2], p 6

[8] Ibid. [2], p 18