Amaro Drom � First Roma Radio Project

Media Plan Institut

The recording of the firts radio programme in Romani language intended for broadcasting on the B&H Public Radio Service, was completed at the Media Plan Institute in Sarajevo. The Amaro Drom Project (Our Way) was prepared by ten young Roma men and women who completed the three-month training at the Institute.

The training was held under the Roma Media Education project, supported by USAID Media/Chemonics and the Council of Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The mentors of the programme were Sarajevo journalists Ljiljana Zurovac and Amir Suzanj, and the Roma Language Programme Editor at Radio Nis (Serbia and Montenegro, Rasid Kurtic.

The programme is 55 minutes long. Young Roma talk about their lives, the problems of education and employment and the views of the Roma community held by authorities and the members of majority national communities. The programme was realized with the financial support from the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

There are no permanent radio and TV programmes in the languages of national minorities, in spite of the fact that public service broadcasters are legally obligated to organize and produce them.

The Media Plan Institute started a long-term project to educate Roma how to cooperate with the media and to train Roma associations in public relations skills, in order to increase the authorities� and public sensibility on the need for immediate solution of the problems faced by the Roma. The activities are implemented under the Decade of Roma Inclusion, which started in Europe last year.