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Speech by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Thank you. It is great to be here.

The First World Romani Congress met more than fifty years ago.

One of the people who helped bring it to life remembered.

A people’s history is not safe just because it happened.

Someone has to ask before the last witness is gone.

There is racism in Britain that people still say out loud, in the open, without lowering their voice.

A film asked if this is the last acceptable form of racism.

We decide.

Scroll through Greek TikTok and you will find Roma life going by in bright colours.

But behind the songs, weddings, dancing, and millions of views, there is another truth.

Visibility is not the same as inclusion.

The Polish Roma were murdered by the Nazis.

For a long time, the killing was left out of history books and the official record, as if it had not happened.

Not anymore.

A word: Porajmos.

For a genocide most of Europe never learned. A work of memory about the persecution and genocide of the Roma community in occupied Serbia during the Second World War. 

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These are the stories and the works we honour today.

And the journalists behind them.

Today’s award recipients restore complexity where others see only stereotypes.

They make racism and anti-Gypsyism impossible to ignore.

Through them, we hear Roma and Travellers in their own words – and see more clearly their rightful place in Europe’s common story.

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I want to thank this year’s jury: Simona Janikova; Marius Jitea; Dalibor Tanic; and Jake Bowers.

And I congratulate the winners on their work, and their commitment to journalistic excellence.

Journalism that helps Europe see itself with honesty and humanity.

Before we present the awards, please join me in giving these five journalists a warm round of applause.