Spotul revistei Academia Caţavencu în lectura CNA şi CNCD. Combaterea discriminării ca politică publică
Combating Discrimination as Public Policy: CNA’s and CNCD’s Reading of an Academia Caţavencu Commercial

Summary/Abstract: After a commercial for the weekly satirical publication Academia Caţavencu was widely broadcasted on TV in May 2010, the National Council of the Audiovisual (CNA) received three complaints concerning the “offense” to Hungarians caused by their portrayal as “conquerors of the Romanian people”, and, respectively, to Romanians, who were depicted as “s lazy south-east European people”. The CNA requested an opinion from the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD), which ruled that the message in the commercial is stereotypical and creates a hostile, degrading and humiliating atmosphere for the members of the two ethnic communities. The CNA subsequently adopted this reading of the commercial. The study shows that these two institutions’ assessments exhibit an increasing tendency to render judgments concerning the professional contents of messages and on the characteristics of persons engaged in public debate. This readiness, together with the drawbacks of legislation in the field of fighting discrimination, leads to excessive interferences with freedom of expression. The norms and public policies in the field must be seriously reconsidered.

• Details
• Contents