A community in resistance
(French translation below) Nearly a year has passed since the day of the Dale Farm eviction, and for a lot of the people who spent time at Dale Farm as part of the resistance, the anniversary carries a huge amount of emotional and political significance. Many of us had spent nearly two months living at … Read more
Four Things we learnt from Channel 4′s BFGW Guilty Verdict
The Advertising Standards Authority have eventually decided that last February’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding billboard advertising sexualised a child and was likely to cause prejudice and harm to Romani and Traveller children. There are many things to learn from Today’s decision and this affair as a whole, here are just four of them… 1. … Read more
Dale Farm contamination fresh headache for Basildon Council
The intricate legal struggles over pollution at Dale Farm are part of a ‘larger war prosecuted against Roma, Gypsies and Travellers across Europe’ writes Grattan Puxon An attempt to reduce residence rights on Dale Farm in order to avoid the huge cost of removing contaminated waste appears to have been thwarted at a planning inquiry yesterday (11 … Read more
Bulgaria pursues extradition of Roma editor in UK courts
As Roma activists, families and supporters gathered outside Westminsters Magistrates Court last week for the attempted extradition of one Roma journalist, things are getting worse for European Roma writes Grattan Puxon. Human rights issues concerning the worsening situation of Bulgaria’s large Roma minority are now expected to be aired in the case of a Romani journalist under … Read more
Blog: Outreach in Basildon
After a slow and grumpy Monday morning start, with one man berating us even before the stall was up and running, the sun came out and we swung into action. Three security people contracted by Basildon Council hung around for a while but happily went on their way after we explained what we were doing … Read more
VIDEO: Blog on Dale Farm Today
Many people have no idea what Dale Farm looks like now. Where all the families have gone, what the council have done with the land. This is unsurprising given the world’s Media, who descended on Crays Hill in Autumn last year, have largely vanished from the community. The fact is, as was said all along, … Read more
Is it really a debate if the powerful don’t listen?
Last week, a few TSNers attended a seminar in Parliament organised by the Irish Traveller Movement of Britain [LINK], and chaired by Andrew George MP of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gypsy Roma and Travellers*. The event aimed at bringing journalists as well as ‘media execs’ into conversation with representatives of different Traveller communities. … Read more
Bulgaria on Trial in Toma Nikolaev Case
By Grattan Puxon It was ‘painfully clear’ the application for the extradition of Roma journalist Toma Nikolaev Maldenov should be dismissed, a court in London was told on Wednesday (22 May). However, Westminster Magistrates Court decided to adjourn the case until 6 June so that legal arguments concerning the validity of the European warrant issued … Read more
April: How the Media covered it
The beginning of April saw the effects of the Government’s new ‘Planning Policy for Traveller Sites‘ take effect. In Gloucestershire the local council sought to chase out a well-established community citing new changes in the law. Similarly plans to build four extra Traveller sites near Hemel Hempstead were quietly dumped last month, with a local … Read more
Support the NUJ: journalists are not police informers!
On the 25th April, the High Court in London will decide whether Essex Police have the right to seize hours of footage from journalists working at Dale Farm during the eviction last October. The case focuses on a ‘production order’ granted by an Essex court last December to allow footage taken at Dale Farm to … Read more
