Denisa Havrľová

"I did a report. It was in Jarovnice. Police were chasing a Roma boy from a Roma settlement who probably picked up some wood in the forest. So for the sake of objectivity, I didn't just want to talk about the family and how they lived, but I wanted to know how the cop reacted to it and what was the punishment this boy potentially faces for taking illegal wood from the forest. It wasn't the whole tractor, it was much less. I came there, it was in Jarovnice, where there is the largest Roma settlement, to the police department. Hello, Denisa Havrľová, Romano newspaper Romano nevo l'il. The policeman said he would not shake my hand. I asked why. That I can give him a press card, which I still had from the Slovak Syndicate of Journalists, and also our editorial card. He replied:" I don't need that, do you have a hygiene card? Of course, I didn't understand. And I told him, why a hygiene card because I'm not going somewhere in the kitchen or looking for a job. This stunned me so much, and when I realized it, I told him if he didn't feel it was racist. I left from there and said to myself that this is not how things should work. That I don't want to experience this anymore. And not just me, but anyone who comes there. If he treats me like this, then how does he treat those Roma from the settlement? ”

"My first report, where I was sent by Danka, was from a Roma settlement in Hermanovce. I came there, they waited for me to talk to them in Roma language, which I didn't speak, so they started inquiring how is that possible and why I'm ashamed of who I am, that I am theirs. So when they said that, I had a very big problem with it. I remember calling my parents, my mom picked it up, I wanted an explanation of what it meant, how the Roma could tell me that I was one of them. It broke there. My mother explained to me that yes, I belong to this ethnic group. But I grew up differently, I lived a different life. I must admit that as a Roma woman myself, I had extremely high prejudices towards my own people. Because I suddenly saw that they were growing up in a completely different environment that I had never known, I didn't know what it was. So I had a lot of personal questions for myself about how they could live like this. "