Racist Hate Speech in Reaction to Roma Winning Big Brother Croatia TV Contest

03 April 2006

According to a 14 February 2006, article by the Praguebased Dzeno Association (Dzeno), racist hate speech appeared online following the announcement that a Muslim Roma man had been chosen by viewers as the winner of the popular TV show Big Brother. The shows broadcasters reportedly commented in a BBC broadcast that they believe that the win by Hamdijia Seferović, the only Roma contestant, is very significant proof of progress in Croatia and the Balkans region with respect to racial tolerance. Unfortunately, as the Dzeno article points out, shortly after the announcement and the following BBC broadcast, racist hate speech of a disturbingly violent nature began appearing online on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist forum. The forum members posted three pages of racist commentary including comments accompanied by photos. As of 9 March 2006, the comments were still posted online.

(ERRC, Dzeno)