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Open
Letter
To the Parliament of Romania
To the President of the
National Council of the Audiovisual (Media), Mr. Razvan Popescu
We are a group of students
from the “Ion Barbu High School” in Bucharest, participating in an
international “Comenius” project entitled “Cultural Diversity and Tolerance”
which has been going on for 2 years (2008-2010) with partner schools from Italy
(San Benedetto del Tronto, Istituto “A. Capriotti”) and Turkey ( Bolu, Sakarya Ilkögretim Okulu).
We are addressing this
letter to you with the hope that you, by the means that you have at your disposal, will help us
trigger an alarm signal regarding the absolutely troubling situation that we
have come across while monitoring within our project, the mass-media: public
(state) televisions : (TVR1, TVR2, TVR Cultural ) , private televisions ( ProTv
Antena 1 , Antena 3 ,”Realitatea” Tv, newspapers ( “Adevarul” , “Gandul” ,
“Libertatea “, etc), state and private radio-stations (Radio Romania, Radio Cultural, Kiss FM, Europa FM).
Our research-topic during
the last stage of our ongoing project has been the amount of violence induced
by mass-media under various forms: image violence, language violence,
psychological violence through the subliminal messages conveyed to the
audience, the lack of positive messages, encouraging an amoral attitude, the
shortage of cultural programmes ( becoming bigger and bigger), the induction of
an aggressive attitude even to the level of the pre-school children, by
promoting certain cartoons that are full of violence.
After having monitored the
above mentioned mass media, we, the project-team, under the guidance of our
teachers, have discovered, with desolation and deep concern, that more than 30%
of the programmes broadcasted by private television channels in Romania during
the month of March, 2010, contain, in one form of another, violence whether we
refer to news bulletins, commercials and advertisements , talk-shows, films or entertainment.
Not only do these programmes discourage culture but they also favour
disinterest in culture or they simply favour inculture (lack of any cultural horizon ).As
far as the state televisions mentioned
above are concerned the 20% of broadcasts in which various forms of violence
can be found reflects a somewhat greater concern towards keeping this
phenomenon under control. Thus, it is
worth mentioning that the “TVR Cultural” Channel with a percentage of only 15%
of violence promoted on the screen places itself on the very top among all
televisions as it shows a constant preoccupation for promoting culture.
The obsession of having a high rating seems to be the main cause for proliferating violence, inculture
or even immorality and this situation is
to be found especially during the following broadcasting intervals: 17:00-19:00
and 21:00-24:00 p.m. and all categories of viewers (from little ones to grown
ups) are targeted.
The impact of this
phenomenon is extremely powerful, especially among school-population,(from
kindergarten to high school),thus increasing the feeling of confusion,
insecurity , alienation in a world(as it is reflected by mass media), full of
crimes ,murders, rapes, robberies, aggression, catastrophies, swindling, invaded
by a language which is often trivial, grammatically incorrect, using various
forms of slang sometimes immersing into mere grotesque.
Nowadays, the generations of high–school students and primary
or secondary school pupils clearly prefer spending their time navigating on the
Internet and yet there is a category of young people, teenagers mostly, who
still read newspapers or various youth-magazines but they can hardly find in
such tabloids as “Libertatea” any
cultural messages whatsoever. More often, they find anti-cultural messages
which encourage a so called freedom of moral behavior actually resulting in
immorality, promiscuity, prostitution.
We consider this
emergency appeal that we are now sending to you to be one of the ways in which
we can voice not only our indignation but also our despair at not having in
mass-media a real partner in our spiritual evolution .We are certain that you, through
the authority invested in you by the Romanian state and electorate, together
with the civil society, with the non-governmental organizations militating for
children’s rights, with the Organisation for the Protection of Consumers as
well as with the help of the National
Council of the Audio Visual(Media), will find the best solutions to make the
necessary amendments to the law of the Audiovisual (Media) so as to cope with
the existing situation in mass-media and will militate to modify the
regulations for applying this law, by the N.C.A. either in the sense of
increasing the amount of the fines applied for breaking the rules of the law or
even taking into consideration a total modification of the sanctionatory system
of the law with a view to dealing away with the phenomenon of violence. To
eliminate it completely would be fairly impossible, but the least we can do is
to fight for diminishing the high degree in which violence has come to be
reflected in all the forms of mass – media: television, radio stations,
newspapers, magazines of any type.
Hoping that our appeal will
not be in vain or rest unanswered, we thank you, in advance, with confidence
and high expectations,
The “Comenius” project Team
“Cultural Diversity and
Tolerance”
Students: Teachers:
P.S. To make our appeal even more convincing we
have initiated a list of signatures from all the students who support our
initiative to start a campaign against violence in mass-media, (which we enclose
to the Open Letter).
We also enclose a top of the
television channels which promote violence directly or indirectly, at a high
rate. This top has been conceived by our students, on the basis of their
research results.
We also enclose the
conclusions that we have reached at the end of our study as well as all the
research-materials (on electronic format).
Thankfully
yours,
The
Project Team ***
As a coordinating country, we have proposed this project to be accomplished with Istituto Tecnico Commerciale –Liceo Linguistico “A. Capriotti” from San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy and with Sakarya Ilkogretim Okulu from Bolu, Turkey, being motivated by the European context.
"Violence in Europe and in the world between citizens of different nationalities is present daily in mass-media offering a negative example to the young citizens in the making. Moreover, these scenes of violence refer to citizens belonging to the countries involved in the partnership. These manifestations have in common the intolerance, the ignorance concerning national, ethnic specificity, the stereotypes about certain nations and monitoring group.
All the partner countries in the partnership will involve pupils who have a predisposition to violent acts (verbal, physical, etc), who have social problems in their families, with predispositions to skipping classes and weak results in learning, but, also, pupils who have a well-off social background, with remarkable result in learning.
The phenomenon of violence among pupils is promoted into mass-media in all the partner countries and it represents the joint motivation for tackling this theme.
We have no doubt that once they have grasped the cultural specificity of each state involved in this project our pupils will succeed in better understanding the differences among nations and will accept them as a principle for peaceful cohabitation in the European Union.
This project will help us to regain pupils of our school who are in danger of abandoning the school, who have recorded weak results (as a consequence of the migration of their parents in other countries in search of a better job), and who have a predisposition to violent acts. We consider that their involvement in such activities will increase their motivation for learning and will reduce, even eliminate, their violent acts from this behaviour.
The cultural stereotypes that still exist today concerning our people from each partner country in the partnership can be altered. But, also, at the level of the local and national authorities these stereotypes could be done away with. We attempt to make our voice heard by organizing special meetings in the Romanian Parliament with special guests representing the embassies of the partner countries. By disseminating and by workshops that we are going to organize in each partner country, as well as at the local and the national authorities’ level, we intend to warn against the danger of ignoring the cultural specificity in all the schools involved in the partnership. These “models” of behaviour cannot but bring up the same generation violent, intolerant and insensible towards the national specificity of each country.
We expect that the pupils involved in the partnership get better school results, change and reduce their tendencies towards violence of any kind, and through the disseminating activities which we will organize we have the conviction that we will change the way of thinking and the working techniques of the form teachers in all partner schools who consider that the pupils with special needs do not have to be severely punished, receiving strict punishments. We believe that these pupils have to be involved into educational activities which can motivate them and can stimulate them in getting involved in learning and in gaining a civilized behaviour.
Throughout this project we all hope to enrich our knowledge about each partner country’s culture, to know ourselves better, and thus, to do away with any stereotypes, any prejudices about a nation or another. Each people owns its values and knowing them you can comply with them.
Living together in a modern European community involves knowing each other better, understanding and tolerance.”
Steriana Chetroiu, Civics teacher, “Ion Barbu” Theoretical High School, Bucharest, Romania
“Je collabore aux projets européens parce que je crois fortement dans les activités qu'ils mettent en marche et qui sont une ressource inépuisable d'expériences et de connaissances soit pour les élèves,soit pour les professeurs.
Le projet "Cultural Diversity and Tolerance", auquel j'ai choisi de collaborer, aborde le thème de la diversité culturelle qui est un héritage commun de l'humanité.
Etre confronté à une autre culture constitue un inépuisable enrichissement, tant du point humain, que des points de vue professionnel et linguistique. Chaque culture a son identité; l'identité culturelle correspond à une définition bien précise: on s'identifie à une communauté culturelle qui a sa langue, ses traditions, ses intérêts, sa richesse. Mais souvent la diversité des cultures est un obstacle à l'unité du genre humain. La cohabitation culturelle est une question fondamentale, car le XXIème siècle ouvre une ère nouvelle où les problèmes de la mondialisation économique, de l'identité culturelle, sont devenus des enjeux incontournables. Que nous le voulions ou non, l'humanité est entrée dans une ère de civilisation multiculturelle: toute la question est de savoir comment nous parviendrons à pacifier le rapport entre les cultures différentes. La cohabitation culturelle, qui est sous nos yeux, doit nous offrir un défi et une vision nouvelle: la capacité d'un individu d'accepter une chose avec laquelle il n'est pas en accord. Toute liberté comporte nécessairement un devoir de tolérance et de respect. On doit demander aux jeunes, c'est à dire aux futurs hommes, de vivre en citoyens du monde, avant de se battre comme citoyens d'un Etat, ou comme membres d'une communauté religeuse".
Rosa Tocci, French language teacher, Liceo Tecnico Commerciale Liceo Linguistico « A. Capriotti », San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy.
“The Project of the European Union which helps to combine cultures and meet people with each other about the same subjects takes very important role. If other instructors take part in this kind of projects, they will learn about other cultures and have knowledge of other people’s life. So, the intention is to cultivate themselves as educators.
We have to approach young people to the differences about economical, social, religion and cultural life and help them to be tolerant about common comprehension of the world.
We are very glad to take part in this project with two beautiful countries as Romania and Italy.
We think to improve our individual knowledge and experience, to improve our teachers’ knowledge and experiences at the range of this Project in other countries, to study on this Project with students about the aims of your drafts, to share students’ aggregations about this Project at our school, to share knowledge and takings with other schools and directors and to form common understanding, to pay attention to our students and our teachers about their education of language.
First, by means of this Project we know other countries and people. Therefore, we get new experiences except books. Also, students have the opportunity to make new friends, to learn different methods and techniques, to gain experiences and solve their problems with different intelligences.
At last we bring up qualified, educated, indulgent students for our future.”
Erhan Erdogan, School Manager, “Sakarya Ilkogretim Okulu”, Bolu, Turkey.
" This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the infomation contained therein."
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