Prize and prejudice
AN INTERNATIONAL campaign by a pro-Roma coalition is calling for the recipient of the 2008 Bulgarian Young Journalist Prize to be stripped of his award.
The coalition alleges that Kalin Rumenov is a racist who portrays Roma in violently offensive terms as backward and second-rate.
One of his articles in a national paper described Roma as “dirty Gyppos” and claimed: “The difference between Gypsies and cattle is that cattle are subject to veterinary control. Livestock can’t behave like Gypsies, but the reverse is allowed.”
A petition calls on the Bulgarian President and Prime Minister, who attended the awards ceremony, to distance themselves from Kalin Rumenov and withdraw the prize.