Czech Republic

Czech Republic: First Romani Charity Ball raises CZK 30 000 for hospital

Ústí nad Labem, 27.3.2014 23:31, (ROMEA) The organizers of the first-ever Romani Charity Ball, held in mid-March in Ústí nad Labem, presented the proceeds of their event, CZK 30 000, to the head physicians at the children's oncology and children's surgery wards of Masaryk Hospital in Ústí nad Labem. Organizers announced the donation on their Facebook page today.  full story

Czech Republic: Hundreds plan to demonstrate against neo-Nazis on 1 May

Brno, 27.3.2014 22:16, (ROMEA) If neo-Nazis gather publicly on 1 May in Brno, there will also be a public assembly by those opposed to them under the name BRNO BLOCKS 2014! (Brno blokuje 2014!). While around 600 promoters of the right-wing extremist Workers' Youth (Dělnická mládež - DM) organization are scheduled to come to Brno that day, conveners of the counter-demonstration hope to bring out 2 000 opponents of neo-Nazism.  full story

Commentary: TV Nova turns Romani murder victim into sausage thief

Prague, 27.3.2014 19:12, (ROMEA) In its main news reporting on the evening of 25 March 2014, TV Nova presented a report about an attack committed last May in Teplice, Czech Republic during which a Romani man was murdered. The degree of false information in that report is unbelievable.  full story

Czech city of Ostrava saw crime rise, right-wing extremist threat last year

Ostrava, 27.3.2014 18:42, (ROMEA) The crime rate in Ostrava rose slightly last year after declining in 2012. Police officers had to address 17 630 crimes last year compared to 16 765 the year before.  full story

Karel Holomek: Czech PM should have a Romani advisor

Brno, 27.3.2014 16:04, (ROMEA) The Czech PM has assembled 36 advisers for a mere half a million crowns, but the money is not the point. The sheer number of his advisers strikes me as fearsome.  full story

Czech ultra-right party launches EP run by burning EU flag

Prague, 26.3.2014 21:23, (ROMEA) Roughly 10 followers of the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) arrived this past Saturday for the start of an election rally in the center of Prague to show their support for DSSS chair Tomáš Vandas, who was launching his campaign for the European Parliament. Their first symbolic step in the EP elections was to burn the EU flag.  full story

Czech NGO says attorney fees for collections the highest in EU

Prague, 26.3.2014 20:58, (ROMEA) The People in Need (Člověk v tísni) organization is conducting an information campaign in order to change the debt recovery system in the Czech Republic. Czech MPs currently face a fundamental decision on whether to reduce the fees attorneys can charge for collections services on small debts.  full story

Czech media again fail to report the full story of an alleged interethnic conflict

Strýčkovice, 26.3.2014 19:03, (ROMEA) The Czech daily Právo and several online tabloids have been reporting that the 100-plus inhabitants of the village of Strýčkovice (Domažlice district) are currently being terrorized by a Romani clan whose members are assaulting them. Czech MP Tomio Okamura, the chair of the "Dawn of Direct Democracy" (Úsvit) movement, has published a piece about it on his blog called "No to a Czech Romanistan!"  full story

Czech ministries jointly drafting plan to fight unemployment

Prague, 26.3.2014 16:59, (ROMEA) Several Czech ministries, not just the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, are most probably going to jointly work on designing the government's plan for the fight against unemployment. The Czech News Agency reports that Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) said she is already putting together a team that will include people from her ministry as well as representatives of the Education Ministry and the Trade and Industry Ministry.  full story

Czech politicians outraged by Justice Minister's remarks about the Nazi Protectorate

Prague, 25.3.2014 20:47, (ROMEA) Politicians are outraged by remarks made in an interview for news server Echo24 by Czech Justice Minister Helena Válková (ANO) about the situation of Czechs during the time of the Nazi Protectorate. The minister said that "not that much happened" to Czechs under Nazi occupation.  full story

Czech who caused the death of one Romani man and stabbed two others gets five years

Ústí nad Labem, 25.3.2014 18:16, (ROMEA) Stanislav Sýkora will be going to prison for five years for his part in a brawl that resulted in the death of a Romani man during the opening of the spa season in Teplice, Czech Republic last year. Sýkora also stabbed two other Romani men during the incident.  full story

The Roma in Czech film

Prague, 25.3.2014 4:29, (Romano Voďi) In the first double issue this year of the monthly Romano voďi we have prepared a three-part series for you on the topic of foreigners and minorities in film and television. In these three articles about various countries - the Czech Republic, Germany, and the USA - the authors discuss film and television productions and touch on the depiction of Romani people in literature as well.  full story

Commentary: Czech MP blogs up an antigypsyist storm over minor incident

Prague, 22.3.2014 18:43, (ROMEA) The Czech media know what it is they are all selling us here. Money, sex, violence and xenophobia.  full story

Much more EU money to target Czech ghettos, social inclusion in future

Prague, 22.3.2014 17:20, (ROMEA) Much more EU money than previously is slated for investment into the fight against poverty, into measures promoting social inclusion, and into solving the problems of ghettos in years to come. Moreover, individual programs managed by the Czech Education Ministry, the Labor Ministry, and the Regional Development Ministry may become more interconnected in order to improve their impact.  full story

Czech NGOs say social housing can be addressed through more investment

Prague, 21.3.2014 19:22, (RO) The Czech state should invest more money into social welfare, including social housing, or it will not be possible for towns and villages to be responsible for providing it. That is the joint statement released recently by the Platform for Social Housing and the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (Svaz měst a obcí ČR - SMOČ).  full story

European Network against Racism: Ethnic, religious minorities face labor discrimination in Europe

Brussels/Prague, 21.3.2014 18:32, (ROMEA) For immigrants to the EU from non-EU countries, Muslims, Romani people, and women from ethnic minorities, discrimination represents a fundamental barrier to finding work. The situation does not improve for many minority group members even if they do manage to gain employment.  full story

Commentary: Czech racism reaches a new low

Prague, 21.3.2014 17:37, (ROMEA) On 19 March, the Czech media reported that a 14-year-old girl from Ostrava had not been seen since the previous afternoon and is considered missing. The Czech Police are asking the public to aid in the search for her.  full story

Czech students, German volunteers launch anti-racism campaign tomorrow

Prague, 20.3.2014 23:03, (ROMEA) In 1966, the UN General Assembly declared 21 March the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The day was chosen to protest the brutal murder of 69 people in 1960 who had been demonstrating in the South African city of Sharpeville against apartheid.  full story

Commentary: The Roma and the Vietnamese, or the "evil" and the "good" aliens

Prague, 19.3.2014 19:39, (ROMEA) Opinions on the so-called "Roma question" are encoded in the generally popular comparisons of Romani and Vietnamese people that we hear being made in the Czech Republic. In these figures of speech, where Vietnamese people play a purely rhetorical role, the "Roma question" is actually the main topic of discussion; such tropes are essentially just a more sophisticated form of "cursing the Gypsies" here.  full story

Czech Republic: Verdicts announced in case that sparked 2013 anti-Romani violence

Ústí nad Labem, 19.3.2014 15:05, (ROMEA) Today the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem handed down sentences against the five people involved in last year's brutal assault on a married couple in the town of Duchcov (Teplice district) ranging from one year on probation to three years in prison. The one juvenile assailant involved, who was the most brutal, will spend two years in prison for committing grievous bodily harm, rioting, and attempted theft.  full story