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Czech Republic: Prima TV station told reporters to depict refugees as a risk and a threat or they would be fired

31.5.2016 13:31 The Czech NGO HlídacíPes.org ("Watchdog") has testimonies from several sources inside Prima TV stating that the television station's management gave producers there clear instructions during a meeting on 7 September 2015 about what angle to take toward the refugee "crisis" in its news reporting. The station's reporting on the issue took center stage this spring because of how it chose to report on the arrival of Christian refugees from Iraq to the Czech Republic.  full story

OSCE/ODIHR Event to Focus on Justice and Redress to Roma Victims of Forced Sterilization in the Czech Republic

30.5.2016 18:50 On Wednesday, 1 June, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will convene an international conference on providing justice and compensation to Romani women who have been subjected to forced sterilization in the Czech Republic. Those attending will be representatives of the Czech Government, survivors of forced sterilization, civil society organizations including Roma community organizations, international experts, and representatives of the Council of Europe, the OSCE/ODIHR, and the United Nations.  full story

Russia: Romani residents of Tula rebel over gas supplies

29.5.2016 11:35 In one of the biggest Romani settlements in Russia a mass battle took place several weeks ago between local residents and police. The cause was the efforts of gas technicians to cut the Romani residents off from a gas pipe they had illegally been tapping.  full story

Czech Interior Minister suing City of Prague over opinion on gallows at demonstration

29.5.2016 10:52 The Office of the Municipal Department of Prague 1 did not make an error when it failed to assess the presence of a mock-up of a gallows during a demonstration against migration last year as constituting a misdemeanor, according to Prague City Hall, which has now reviewed the appeal of that Prague 1 decision filed by Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD), who says he will now file an administrative lawsuit over City Hall's decision. Chovanec says he believes threatening people with a gallows in public must not be allowed to be considered legal.  full story

Czech Republic: Another bomb threat against the Klinka Social Center, police search building without evacuating it

29.5.2016 10:35 On 27 May an anonymous e-mailer threatened to detonate a bomb at the Klinika Autonomous Social Center in the Žižkov quarter of Prague for the third time in seven days. Klinika activists reported the threat on their Facebook profile.  full story

Germany: Romani refugees occupy Berlin memorial to Roma murdered during Nazism, police intervene

29.5.2016 9:55 Last Sunday afternoon approximately 100 people occupied Berlin's memorial to the Romani and Sinti people who were murdered by the Nazis. The protest was held under the slogan "We Are Here".  full story

Cyprus: Orthodox Church leader welcomes election of neo-Nazi MPs

28.5.2016 10:21 The leader of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, has expressed satisfaction over the fact that neo-Nazis from the "National-People's Front" (ELAM) party made it into Parliament for the first time ever after Sunday's elections. Chrysostomos supports the deep conservatism of the Orthodox Church, which takes a hard line against the secularizing efforts of modern society and supports hate speech against minorities such as the LGBT community.  full story

European Commission launches infringement proceedings against Hungary over discrimination of Romani children

28.5.2016 9:50 On 26 May the European Commission (EC) called on Hungary to stop discriminating against Romani children in education and to adjust its laws accordingly. The Commission made the announcement within the framework of its regular review of transgressions committed by Member States against EU legislation.  full story

Germany: British neo-Nazis tweet photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute at Buchenwald

28.5.2016 8:36 Two members of a British neo-Nazi group have tweeted a photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute during a visit to the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. German media drew attention to the case on 26 May and report that authorities are investigating.  full story

Czech Republic's well-loved RefuFest begins in Prague

27.5.2016 23:40 RefuFest, a favorite festival in the Czech capital, began today. The 11th annual multicultural gathering will last until the end of next week.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani members of LEV 21 party disapprove of it partnering with ultra-right in fall elections

27.5.2016 22:28 On 25 May, the National Socialists-LEV 21 party announced it would be holding a press conference to announce its collaboration with the Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS), an idea that was first announced during the 1 May demonstration by the DSSS in Ústí nad Labem this year. In addition to Petr Benda, a former MP and former chair of the North Bohemian cell of the Czech Social Democratic Party, who is currently vice-chair, Tomáš Vandas, the chair of the extremist DSSS, was scheduled to attend the press conference.  full story

Timea Junghaus: Roma art as an act of resistance

27.5.2016 21:27 On May 16, Europe’s Roma commemorated the 1944 uprising in the so-called Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy Camp”) in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, the idea of Roma resistance is understood as the Roma people’s perseverance in fighting different forms of oppressions, now and in the past.  full story

Czech Interior Minister says migrants are "not an issue" in the Czech Republic

27.5.2016 7:41 Czech voters are mainly interested in parties that address the full spectrum of political issues, not in those that are narrowly focused just on the topic of migration, for example. That is the assessment of Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD), who made his remarks during a discussion about democracy.  full story

Czech Police arrest 16 activists from the Autonomous Social Center Klinika, charges being pressed

26.5.2016 6:24 Police intervened Tuesday at the Klinika building on Jeseniova Street in Prague and took a total of 16 activists from the community center there into custody after they refused to obey police instructions to leave the building. The activists are suspected of committing misdemeanors against public order because they refused to cooperate with officials, Prague Police spokesperson Tomáš Hulan posted to the police website.  full story

Austrian neo-Nazi massacres festival-goers

24.5.2016 22:46 At the beginning of the week the Czech media briefly reported on an incident in the small town of Nenzing, Austria, where on Sunday morning a 27-year-old man, after a seemingly banal argument with his girlfriend, shot randomly into a crowd of people. Two men died on the spot and more than 10 people were injured.  full story

Czech Republic: New handbook advises foreign nationals on how to respond to hate

24.5.2016 10:31 Foreigners who become the target of hateful assaults in the Czech Republic can find advice on how to address their situations in a new handbook. Instructions on how to report a crime and what a criminal investigation and trial entails are described there.  full story

Czech Culture Minister: Govt, stockholders of pig farm negotiating to remove it from Romani Holocaust site

23.5.2016 17:06 The Czech weekly RESPEKT has published an interview by Kateřina Šafaříková with Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman today. The former Catholic priest, MP for the Christian Democrats and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes discusses the topic of the pig farm on the site of the WWII-era camp for Romani prisoners at Lety by Písek, the issue of refugees, and his long personal friendships with military official Jiří Komorous and musician Daniel Landa.  full story

Romani hockey player listed in Czech edition of Forbes "30 under 30"

23.5.2016 9:12 Dominik Lakatoš, the 18-year-old hockey talent, has been chosen by the Czech edition of Forbes magazine as one of 30 young people who have reached the top of their professions before the age of 30. "At the age of two his parents put a football and a hockey stick in front of Dominik Lakatoš, he reached for the hockey stick and began his career in Kolín. In the seventh grade he began a series of big steps: Joining Liberec, playing as an adult, and his White Tigers uniform marked another jump to playing as one of the best forwards, thanks to which Liberec dominated the extraliga. Possibly the most important such advance happened at the end of last year, when the 18-year-old became the first Romani man on the Czech Republic's hockey team and played in the World Junior Championship for those 20 and younger in Finland," the Czech edition of Forbes writes about the young Romani hockey player.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: Relatives of the Romani victims of Nazism and survivors disagree with anti-refugee sentiment

20.5.2016 13:26 Čeněk Růžička, chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust in the Czech Republic (VPORH), has criticized the absence of any systematic research into the causes and consequences of what happened to Romani and Sinti people during Nazism and the sharing of such information with the public. "For example: How did the arrest of the Romani families by the individual stations of the gendarmerie take place during the Protectorate era? What exactly was confiscated from each family, never to be returned? How did the collaboration of the Czech Protectorate’s Interior Ministry with the Nazis work when it came to the persecution of the Roma?" he asked during last week's commemorative ceremony, during which he also clearly spoke out against xenophobic populists.  full story

Members of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union distance themselves from national chair in petition, leadership defends his speech at Terezín

19.5.2016 15:27 The Central Committee of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) has expressed its agreement with the speech given by its chair, Jaroslav Vodička, at this year's commemorative ceremony at Terezín. Critics of the speech have called him xenophobic because of the remarks he made about refugees.  full story