Extended search

Commentary by Petr Uhl: "The Jew Hilsner from Polná was unjustly convicted of the murder of the Christian, Hrůzová"

7.1.2016 23:03 I have borrowed the headline for this commentary from yesterday's news reports published by several Czech media outlets. The full headline was: "Leopold Hilsner, a resident of the Jewish ghetto in Polná, was unjustly convicted of the murder of the Christian, Hrůzová."  full story

Czech children give a record 3 873 Christmas gifts to their impoverished peers

6.1.2016 14:55 Diaconia of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren reports that through one of its projects a record 3 873 boxes of Christmas presents were distributed to children from socially vulnerable families or excluded localities in the Czech Republic this holiday season. The Christmas surprises, wrapped in shoe boxes, were prepared by other children from various locations around the country with the aid of their parents or teachers.  full story

Czech residential hotel with 200 tenants goes second day without power

5.1.2016 23:28 A residential hotel on Zelená Street in the Czech town of Děčín, which became a target of anti-Romani marches in the summer of 2014, has been without electricity since yesterday after several fuses blew. Around 200 occupants live in the building, a large portion of whom are children.  full story

Children from five Czech children's homes spend Christmas in the mountains

4.1.2016 17:28 Children from five children's homes in the Czech Republic found presents under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning this year thanks to the Duha Zámeček (Rainbow Manor) association's annual Rainbow Christmas in the mountains event. This year the children took an imaginary journey across the ocean and experienced an American Christmas with Santa Claus and turkey.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister congratulates 30+ recipients of Roma Education Fund scholarships

15.12.2015 21:28 On Friday, 11 December, the annual gala to celebrate the awarding of scholarships to Romani college students took place in Prague. For the 2015/2016 academic year, 34 students received scholarships from the Budapest-based Roma Education Fund (REF).  full story

Czech Republic: Roma Spirit award goes to director of primary school that includes Roma and to Romea.cz co-founder

14.12.2015 22:28 The fifth annual Roma Spirit awards in the Czech Republic have been given in five regular categories and two special ones. The gala awards ceremony evening at the Prague Crossroads on Thursday, 10 December, International Human Rights Day, included performances by Antonín Gondolán, the band Terne Čhave and Natálie Bagárová.  full story

EU Justice Ministers call on Facebook to be stricter about removing hoaxes and threats

14.12.2015 20:20 The European Union's council of Member State Justice Ministers announced on 3 December that they are planning to jointly call on Facebook to be faster and stricter about removing hateful threats and hoaxes from the social networking site. "We are seriously debating this at the council of ministers. Here in the Czech Republic we are not very interesting [to Facebook] because we are a small market, and that is why we are doing our best to get Europe as a whole to agree to tell Facebook these matters need to be overseen," Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán told news server Aktuálně.cz.  full story

US Ambassador to Czech Republic gives Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to director of primary school that includes Roma

13.12.2015 16:59 The Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award for work in the field of human rights was given on 9 December to Marie Gottfriedová, director of the Trmice Primary School in the Ústí Region of the Czech Republic. The award has been given by the US Embassy since 2004 and was given to Ms Gottfriedová by US Ambassador Andrew Schapiro.  full story

Commentary: Is Czech society about to rid itself of anti-Gypsyist MEP Miloslav Ransdorf?

10.12.2015 4:32 I have known Miloslav Ransdorf since June 1990, when we were both elected as legislators in the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia - he for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, I for Civic Forum (Občanské fórum). We did not see eye to eye there despite my cooperation with most of his comrades in that parliament.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani author and journalist Gejza Demeter has passed away

9.12.2015 17:28 The eminent Romani author and journalist Gejza Demeter has passed away; his funeral will be this Friday, 11 December, at 13:00 in the ceremonial hall of the cemetery in Neratovice. Jan Červenka, head of the Romani Studies Seminar at Charles University in Prague contacted news server Romea.cz on behalf of Mr Demeter's family last week with the news.  full story

Questions and answers about the 2015 migration crisis: 894 000 refugees and a divided EU

8.12.2015 21:01 When did the refugee crisis start this year?  full story

Residential hotel tenants petition Czech PM over discrimination against the impoverished

8.12.2015 18:26 "The poverty caused by the ill-considered amendments to the social laws is unlike any that has ever existed in the modern history of our country," reads a press release sent out by an informal initiative of residential hotel tenants asserting that the situation of the families with children, senior citizens and unemployed occupants of such facilities is so critical it could become a cause of social unrest. The tenants have written a petition to the Czech Prime Minister protesting against a planned amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress.  full story

Inclusive education in Canada is a reality

5.12.2015 20:29 When Harland Sanders began selling fried chicken, he was no different from anyone else. What turned his efforts into the famous KFC restaurant was a few small details, among them the secret ingredients of his spice mix.  full story

Czech teachers can invite performances from "You, Me and Them - theater as a forum against prejudice" to their schools

4.12.2015 23:25 "You, Me and Them - theater as a forum against prejudice" is a joint project of the Antikomplex organization and the Slovo 21 NGO in the Czech Republic. Three teams of actors from three different cities (Ostrava, Písek and Prague) give three different performances, the common aim of which is to "develop a culture of dialogue between the majority and minority groups in the Czech Republic and, through theater, to open up a common space leading to the awareness of each individual's own life situation, power to achieve change, and rights," according to a press release about the project.  full story

Austria's "word of the year" contest shows impact of refugee crisis

4.12.2015 22:35 "Willkommenskultur" ("the culture of welcome") has been voted Austria's 2015 "word of the year" in an online survey in which almost 34 000 people voted and an expert commission then chose what word to designate with this honor. The "misnomer of the year", on the other hand, is "special building measures", which Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner used to described a planned fence on the border with Slovenia.  full story

Advent Challenge calls on Czech society to defend itself against hatred and populists

3.12.2015 18:42 The Post Bellum organization has issued an Advent Challenge warning against the abuse of concerns over the refugee crisis, the situation in Russia, and the division of society. The text was written in response to the events that have been occurring all over Europe in recent months.  full story

Fortieth anniversary of the death of Hannah Arendt

3.12.2015 17:35 One of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, the author, philosopher and political theorist of German origin Hannah Arendt, died 40 years ago on 4 December 1975 in her New York office. Thanks to her "desire to understand", she described the roots of the success of modern dictatorships (Fascism and Communism) and the fatal failures of modern elites during those systems' rise to power in her three-volume work "The Origins of Totalitarianism".  full story

Karel Holomek: Do Roma fall into poverty from the same causes and in the same way as everyone else?

2.12.2015 19:43 In the Czech Government's regular annual report on the state of the Romani minority, the most essential message is that as many as 115 000 people today are living in impoverished ghettos and that this number, compared to 2006, has almost doubled from the 60 000 people so afflicted then, and that currently there are as many as 600 such ghettos (excluded localities) compared to an estimated 300 then. It is also casually mentioned, along with this number, that most of these people are Romani, because, after all, this is a report on the status of the Romani minority, not just a report on the state of poverty in general.  full story

Council of Europe calls on Czech Republic to protect minority languages like German and Romani more

2.12.2015 18:40 The Council of Europe (CoE) has called on the Czech Republic to increase its efforts to protect and support minority languages, especially German and Romani. The CoE's press release issued today says its Committee of Ministers (CoM) has sent many recommendations to Prague on the basis of a report by its Committee of Experts assessing the degree to which the country complies with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.  full story

Czech state prosecutor says gallows at demonstration was illegal

1.12.2015 17:11 Vladimír Heřman's decision to bring a homemade gallows inscribed with "for treason" to a July demonstration against Islam in Prague will apparently result in a trial. The state prosecutor has assessed his actions as illegal and he will most probably be prosecuted.  full story