Czech Republic

Czech capital won't allow second demonstration against xenophobia because of timing clash with anti-immigrant event

16.7.2015 23:24 The City of Prague has refused permission to a second assembly in support of receiving refugees announced for this Saturday on Wenceslas Square. The space requested had previously been reserved.  full story

Czech Republic: HateFree Culture project refutes online hoaxes about refugees

15.7.2015 16:33 HateFree Culture, a project that is part of the Czech Government's campaign against hate violence and racism, has issued the following press release:  full story

Czech Republic's Wenceslas Square to see three protests on the immigration issue this Saturday

14.7.2015 23:08 Those opposed to receiving refugees in the Czech Republic are heading for the center of Prague this Saturday, as are those who want to express solidarity with immigrants. There will be three separate events at various places along Wenceslas Square during the afternoon of the 18th.  full story

Czech trial of priest accused of sexually molesting Romani children to resume next month

14.7.2015 22:09 On 15 June the trial began at the Přerov District Court of Catholic priest Vladimír Krejsa on charges of sexually molesting children in Přerov. The 64-year-old clergyman from the Přerov area, who is retired and no longer working as a priest, used to visit a Romani community in a troubled locality near the train station.  full story

Czech Museum of Romani Culture presents silent film from 1923 featuring Roma character

14.7.2015 5:17 On Thursday, 16 July, the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno will present an extraordinary cultural experience. The museum will screen a unique silent film by Václav Kubásek from 1923, "Bewitching Eyes" (Čarovné oči), accompanied by live music performed by the band The Harmonic Play.  full story

Czech Labor Offices awarding housing benefits to more than half of all applicants

13.7.2015 23:07 Apparently thousands of new homeless people will not be created by municipalities in the Czech Republic after all. At least not for now.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry anticipates up to 7 000 to enter illegally next year

13.7.2015 22:17 The Czech Interior Ministry anticipates that next year anywhere between 5 000 and 7 000 immigrants will enter the country illegally. This year approximately 3 500 such entries are expected total.  full story

Infamous Czech right-wing extremist plays a Nazi in a new film

13.7.2015 7:06 In a film by director Filip Renč that is currently in production, one of the Nazis is played by an infamous face on the Czech neo-Nazi scene, Jaromír Pytel. The Club of Military History of the "White Power European Patriots" (WPEP) has published photographs on its Facebook profile of Pytel with the director and added a text stating that Pytel's club has signed a contract with the production.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani journalist starts media "incubator"

12.7.2015 23:22 "Young Roma have a lot to say about what is going on around them. However, they come up against the fact that they are unable to express their opinions in such a way as to be able to participate in a public debate, and frequently they never have the room to present their opinions about matters other than inter-ethnic coexistence," says Věra Lacková, the author of the "Media Voice" program in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Labor Ministry says homelessness will not rise because of housing benefit ambiguity

11.7.2015 18:27 The Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry issued a press release at the end of June on the current situation regarding the disbursal of housing benefits. News server Romea.cz publishes it in full below, followed by a response from the Union of Cities and Municipalities.  full story

Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival features dramas about Roma

10.7.2015 23:50 Peter Baláž, a former Olympic athlete and boxing champion many times over, has played himself in a melancholy boxing film by Ivan Ostrochovský called "Koza" (Goat). Baláž was present on 6 July for the screening of the film in the Grand Thermal Hall at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.  full story

Czech Justice Ministry offers unused building with 580 beds for refugees

10.7.2015 20:06 The Czech Justice Ministry can provide a building in Vyšní Lhoty (Frýdek-Místek district) for the reception of refugees. The ministry had originally considered turning the facility into a prison but would like to use it as a refugee center instead.  full story

Czech mayor disagrees with study finding an excluded locality in his town

10.7.2015 17:20 On 3 July the Mayor of Milovice, ing. Milan Pour, posted his official standpoint on the town's website about the results of the recent Analysis of Socially Excluded Localities in the Czech Republic, a research project commissioned by the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and produced by the GAC, s.r.o. company. The mayor's statement says that the factual extent of the area which might be considered excluded does not provide a basis for including Milovice among towns with socially excluded localities, as "this concerns a part of town where approximately 160 -180 persons showing signs of social exclusion live".  full story

Czech prosecutor finds no evidence that radical Islamic book disseminates racism

9.7.2015 22:46 Czech Television reports that prosecutors have returned the case of an allegedly radical Islamic book said to have been disseminating racism back to police for further investigation. Jan Lelek, head of the Prague 1 District State Prosecutor, confirmed the information to the Czech News Agency.  full story

Czech Labor Minister plans Internet subsidy for the socially vulnerable

9.7.2015 21:27 Czech Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Michaela Marksová-Tominová (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) is planning to subsidize reduced Internet rates for the socially vulnerable. "The aim is for people at risk of social exclusion to be able to use digital technology to improve their position in society," Jiří Vaňásek, director of the ministry's Labor Market Department, told news server iHNED.cz.  full story

Czech Police: Shooter was a juvenile, no indications yet of extremism playing a role

9.7.2015 18:55 The person suspected of having shot at a bus full of people on Tuesday evening in the Czech town of Plzeň is a 15-year-old youth, according to police. The suspect was apprehended by detectives less than 24 hours after the crime was committed and is now in a police cell.  full story

Czech Police arrest suspected shooter, investigate whether foreigners were his target

9.7.2015 16:06 he Czech Police have arrested a man suspected of have fired at a public bus on Tuesday in the Bory quarter of Plzeň. They also confiscated the weapon that was probably used in the shooting.  full story

Czech Gov't Roma Commission: Municipal consent to housing benefits must be abolished

9.7.2015 5:43 The Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs, which is chaired by Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier, convened last week and joined those institutions and politicians demanding a new amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress. As of May, local municipalities, not Labor Offices, have been empowered to decide whether housing benefits applications should be awarded.  full story

Czech Republic: Art show about Hodonín concentration camp for Roma opens in Prague

9.7.2015 3:40 On Tuesday, 30 June an exhibition of art by Michaela Pospíšilová-Králová entitled "As If It Never Existed" ("Jako by nikdy neexistoval") about the concentration camp for Roma at Hodonín by Kunštát opened at Café v Lese in Prague (Krymská 12, Vršovice). The opening featured a lecture by Markus Pape, a German journalist living in Prague who has long studied the topic of the Roma Holocaust.  full story

Czech Police now agree that "a gallows has no place in a democracy"

8.7.2015 22:30 Speakers at last week's anti-immigration demonstration in the center of Prague may have committed a felony. That is the conclusion of the police officers who have studied the documentation materials and speeches given at previous assemblies of a similar nature.  full story