The Protection of Minorities and Minority languages. The Case of Friulian and Friulian Minority

Viola Vicario Master thesis MA Euroculture 
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of the international law. It suggests the strategies to stop the discrimination and 
assure the integration of Roma and the full application of the international laws on 
human rights. Aline Sjerp (2008)
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 analyzes the Italian case of minority language 
protection in the media, in particular the role that mass media can play in the 
preservation or weakening of minority languages. She explores some of the effects 
that different protective measures can have on the survival, status and economic 
conditions of the linguistic minority on the one hand, and the relationship with the 
state and the majority group on the other. She concludes that the protection of 
minority languages has always been a difficult topic in Italy: relatively few 
legislative texts relate to its numerous linguistic minorities. Protective measures 
usually concern only the French-, German-, Slovene-, and Ladin-speaking 
minorities who benefit from support from neighboring countries. Finally she 
suggests that to improve the situation of linguistic minorities in the mass media 
more commitment from the state and the regional authorities on the one hand and 
public broadcasting companies on the other is needed. 
 The regional level: Valeria Piergigli, in her article “La protezione delle lingue 
minoritarie in Friuli-Venezia Giulia”
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, presents the Italian and regional laws for the 
protection of minorities and concludes that the protection and the valorization of the 
minority languages and of the subjective situations of the speakers must be assured, 
proportionally to the effective needs, without prejudices against those who do not 
recognize themselves in that communities and without evoking the regional 
specificity to obtain a reinforcement in the political and administrative autonomy. 
Francesco Palermo and Giulia Predonzani, in their article “La minoranza slovena in 
Italia: una tutela incompiuta”
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, show how in Italy, the indigenous minorities of the 
Alps has a strong legal protection, but the Slovene one is the least protected, mainly 
for historical reasons. They conclude that the protection of the Slovene minority 
continues to be the product of the combination of different and non-directly 
connected aspects, and its development is always trolling for something else (often 
for its shadow).  
  
                                                                   
13
 Sierp, A., “Minority Language Protection in Italy: Linguistic Minorities and the media”, in JCER, 
2008, 4(4), 303-331. 
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 http://www.coordinamentoadriatico.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=626&Itemid=40 
(accessed on the 24/07/2016) 
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 http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Temi/Diritti-umani/Minoranze/La-minoranza-slovena-in-Italia-una-
tutela-incompiuta-43277 (accessed on the 24/06/2016).