News

Czech artist writes a guide to the Brno "Bronx", says Romani people "uninterested" in education

27.12.2016 22:18 The Brno-based artist Kateřina Šedá and a team of collaborators have put together a "guide" to Brno's so-called "Bronx" neighborhood and she has given an interview to news server iDNES.cz in which she criticizes the life of Romani residents there. The artist is quoted as saying in the interview that local Romani people are not interested in education and that their children's aim in life is to draw unemployment benefit because that is what they see adults doing in their families.  full story

French left and right unite on mass evictions of Roma: Hollande forces thousands more Roma onto the streets

27.12.2016 21:01 A report released earlier this month by the European Roma Rights Centre and the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme shows France stepped up the number of forced evictions of Roma this year after a relative reprieve in the second quarter. After a reduction in eviction numbers, France has seemingly made up for lost time and increased the number of forced evictions of Romani people; the full report on the forced evictions of Roma in France for the third quarter of 2016 is available in English and French.  full story

Czech President attacks some welfare recipients, rejects immigrants, says Interior Ministry is "censoring" the Internet

27.12.2016 19:51 Czech President Miloš Zeman has sent his traditional Christmas message from the presidential residence in Lány, expressing appreciation for the good state of the economy being reflected in Czechs' standard of living and criticizing low levels of public investment, alleging that subsidies for renewable energy and some welfare benefits are a drag on the economy. Zeman also rejected the Czech Republic voluntarily accepting immigrants, whom he believes could spawn terrorist attacks.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani community organizes Christmas party for children's home in Jihlava

23.12.2016 17:18 Romani community members from all over the Czech Republic have organized a Christmas party for the children in a Jihlava Children's Home, most of whom are also Romani. The idea of holding the party came from Robert Tonelli, who grew up in a Children's Home himself and wanted to make the children's Christmas holiday more pleasant, as well as to give them something from the heart.  full story

Czech court sentences Romani man to prison for racist abuse while mourning a relative's death

22.12.2016 4:34 The District Court in Louny has sentenced 41-year-old Miroslav Fedák to eight months in prison for defamation of a nation and race. During a commemoration of the young Romani man who died in a pizzeria in October, Fedák shouted racist, vulgar abuse.  full story

Czech presidential candidate said three years ago that Roma justifiably feel surrounded by barriers

21.12.2016 16:43 The following interview was conducted in 2013. Earlier this year Michal Horáček announced he will run for Czech President in 2018.  full story

HOAX: Video from Prague spreads through Facebook alleging "Islamic refugees" were caught trying to rape a girl

20.12.2016 23:57 On 14 December the administrators of a Canadian website called "Never Again Canada" posted video footage to their Facebook profile that originally came from the Czech Republic and has been viewed 900 000 times, shared 14 000 times, and received 5 000 reactions as of 20 December. The footage shows an argument about methamphetamine followed by an assault on a young woman in Prague.  full story

Czech musician minimizes his neo-Nazi past, but there is proof of his present links to right-wing extremists

20.12.2016 21:24 In a recent interview with radio anchor Zuzana Bubílková, Tomáš Hnídek Ortel downplayed the political significance of his band, Ortel, more than once and was intentionally vague about his own long-ago past and the band's more recent associations. Ortel asserts that he has nothing to do with the neo-Nazi movement today.  full story

Slovakia: Commander of brutal police raid against Romani people prosecuted

20.12.2016 19:36 The Slovak Interior Ministry's Inspectorate has accused the police officer who was directly in charge at the scene of a raid against Romani people in the Slovak town of Vrbnica in 2015 of criminal activity. Other prosecutions of the individual police officers accused of committing violence against the Romani residents during the raid have been halted.  full story

Czech Republic marks five years since the death of President Václav Havel

19.12.2016 0:53 Several events taking place around the Czech Republic today commemorated the death of Czech President Václav Havel five years ago. In Prague there will be readings from his plays, a requiem mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, and an evening march to Prague Castle.  full story

Czech Republic: Many Romani families being evicted by year-end

19.12.2016 0:05 Czech Radio and news server iDNES.cz report that in the Czech town of Broumov in the Náchod area roughly 20 socially vulnerable families are set to lose their housing. Their leases are expiring before year-end and the landlords will not extend them.  full story

How you can aid the people trapped in Aleppo, Syria

18.12.2016 22:58 The horrifying photographs and video footage of what is currently happening in Aleppo are probably being seen right now by all of us. Many of us are asking ourselves: What can I do?  full story

Karel Holomek on the "social unconscious" and the Roma Spirit Awards

18.12.2016 22:04 This year's Roma Spirit Awards had to grapple with a lack of comprehension from an unanticipated party: From Romani people themselves. I have done my best to grasp what has happened and it took me a long time before I understood it.  full story

Czech bank pulls advertising from disinformation websites, costing them revenue

18.12.2016 21:00 The Česká spořitelna bank has pulled its advertising from the disinformation websites that have been regularly leading their readers astray or very frequently distorting the information they report. Those news servers have now lost that advertising revenue.  full story

USA: Tech firm staffers refuse to work for Trump

18.12.2016 20:23 On 14 December Reuters reported that approximately 100 employees of American technology firms have pledged not to aid President-elect Donald Trump create a database of people according to their religion or to deport people en masse. The signatories to the open letter are employed by Google, Twitter and other firms.  full story

US Embassy to the Czech Republic gives Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to the "We Aid Refugees" organization

18.12.2016 19:38 On the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December), US Ambassador to the Czech Republic Andrew H. Schapiro gave the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award on 8 December to the organization "We Aid Refugees" (Pomáháme lidem na útěku - PLNU) for its work in the human rights area coordinating and supporting the aid provided by Czech volunteers to refugees on the so-called "Balkan route". "We are giving this award for the enthusiasm with which this organization aids people fleeing war-torn countries," Ambassador Schapiro said during the ceremony at his residence in Prague 6.  full story

Analysis: The German parliamentary elections and refugee policy

18.12.2016 17:23 Next year parliamentary and presidential elections will happen in the two most significant Member States of the European Union. While in France the choice of the conservative required two rounds of voting and about four million people ended up choosing the new candidate, the determination of the candidate for the German conservative dual party of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) was a lightning-fast process.
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New European civil society network hopes to accelerate the delivery of justice

18.12.2016 2:14 The European Implementation Network (EIN) began its work on 2 December at the headquarters of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The main aim of this new nonprofit organization is to support the implementation of judgments handed down by the court.  full story

Slovak PM targets Roma in his speeches, critics say he should focus on his own corruption scandals

18.12.2016 1:20 Slovak news server Denník N reports that at the most recent convention of the governing Smer party, Slovak PM Robert Fico and his colleagues chose not just a new governing board, but also a new priority - Romani people. Fico gave a harsh speech discussing Romani people as welfare abusers and said he would support the police in their interventions into Romani settlements.  full story

Analysis: The Lety Romani Holocaust site as a "Gestapo concentration camp"

17.12.2016 3:07 The year 2016 has brought us absolutely new arguments in favor of removing the pig farm from the Romani genocide site at Lety. More than 70 years have passed since the end of the Second World War.  full story