Roma radio will soon be launched in Ukraine

The Roma radio will be launched in Ukraine in autumn. The major programs will be broadcasted in the Ukrainian language (75% of the air) and the Roma language (25% of the air). The translations into Russian and English will also be available in podcasts.

The new radio project aims to overcome the negative stereotypes, discrimination and segregation.

Natalia Zinevych, the Chiriklo Roma radio station program editor, candidate of historical sciences, senior research associate at the Institute of the Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine said this to the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent.

According to her, director of the Patrin Roma radio station in the Netherlands Orhan Galjuš and director of the Chiriklo Roma radio station Fedir Kondur will become the official voices of the radio. Journalist Olha Vesnianka will be the news anchor and presenter of the author’s interviews. Journalist Iryna Tkachenko and historian Natalia Zinevych will also be the radio presenters.

The opening of a radio station was the joint initiative of Roma public figure, director of the Patrin Roma radio station in the Netherlands Orhan Galjuš and President of the Charity Fund “Chiricli International Roma Women’s Fund” Yulia Kondur.

The number of specialized Roma media resources has already been launched in the countries of the Balkan-Carpathian region, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Russia. The next one on the agenda is the Roma radio station in Ukraine, the concept of which is largely based on the experience of Patrin radio.

“The mission of the Chiriklo radio station is to let the Roma people speak, distributing information about safety, health, human rights, ethnonational policy and certain government programs, such as the Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma National Minority Into Ukrainian Society Up to 2020 (adopted in 2013) to represent the various activities and initiatives, using new technologies to foster expanding the rights and opportunities of the Roma people and to facilitate communication and understanding at the level of the EU and Ukraine,” Natalia Zinevych says.

According to her, the radio station will focus on a wide range of listeners, including the youth, thanks to mobile applications and release of the radio content via social networks.

“The cherry on the top of the Roma radio content will be presentation of history of Roma music and its modern trends in Ukraine and around the world, the interviews with singers. The listeners will also be able to discover the history and culture of the Roma people in Ukraine and the world, their present-day life in different regions of Ukraine and abroad,” the Roma radio station program editor notes.

Photo: Facebook of Fedir Kondur