News

Commentary: Czech media spread panic about asylum-seeker "uprising", ignore human rights issues

4.8.2015 1:23 Last Thursday evening the Czech news media delivered a dramatic, exciting report claiming that asylum-seekers in a camp in Bělá pod Bezdězem had "rebelled"! Roughly 50 were said to have attempted to escape the facility!  full story

Gallup poll shows Roma isolation from Bulgarian society has intensified over the last 20 years

2.8.2015 20:58 Radio Bulgaria reports that as the Decade of Roma Inclusion comes to a close, Roma are still permanently excluded from Bulgarian society, according to a representative Gallup International poll. Researcher Dimitar Ganev said the poll was conducted in response to inter-ethnic tensions in May and June of this year.  full story

Czech amendment will abolish municipal consent to housing benefits

31.7.2015 2:28 The dramatic, protracted dispute over an amendment which some experts believe could push more than 20 000 people in the Czech Republic "onto the street" has hit another milestone. The Government has tasked Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová with elaborating an amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress that will abolish municipal consent as a condition of the disbursal of housing benefits.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum calls for moment of silence, noon, 2 August, International Remembrance Day of the Pharrajimos

31.7.2015 1:46 The European Roma and Travellers Forum is calling for the observation of a moment of silence at noon on Sunday, 2 August, in memory of the Romani victims who were murdered on the night of 2 August and early morning hours of 3 August 1944 in “Zigeunerlager BIII” at Auschwitz – Birkenau. The Roma Holocaust, or Pharrajimos, is considered the biggest tragedy in the history of the Roma in Europe.  full story

Drahomír Radek Horváth: I don't know where to stand on fear of immigrants and Islam

30.7.2015 23:48 I am not a paranoid person and I don't generalize, I judge people by the quality of their character, not their skin color, I tolerate other opinions, religions, sexual orientations, etc. Simply put, as a member of a national minority I have "enjoyed" plenty of generalizations about Roma in my own life.  full story

Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner: Time to cure amnesia about the history of Roma in Europe

30.7.2015 20:03 Nils Muižnieks, the Human Rights Commissioner at the Council of Europe, has written in advance of the 2 August commemorations of the 1944 murder of Romani people at Auschwitz that Europe's amnesia about the history of the Roma needs to be cured. Referencing the historical events at Auschwitz in particular, he writes: "Knowledge about both the Roma uprising and the liquidation of the 'Gypsy camp' remains limited in European societies today."  full story

Czech online discussions of refugees are full of hatred

30.7.2015 0:23 Three-quarters of the online contributions posted to Czech-language social networking or other sites that are about refugees are negative. Just one quarter of the 147 000 posts monitored in May and June expressed a desire to aid refugees.  full story

Finland: 15 000 people demonstrate for multiculturalism

29.7.2015 23:18 Agence France-Presse reports that approximately 15 000 people assembled yesterday in the center of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to express their support for a multicultural society and protest against remarks made by MPs for the governing eurosceptic, populist Party of the Finns. Organizers convened the demonstration to protest remarks made by MP Olli Immonen, who called for "combating the nightmare of multiculturalism" over the weekend on Facebook.  full story

Czech NGO: We either rescue refugees from hell or they will die

29.7.2015 21:01 The Generace 21 (Generation 21) Foundation wants to bring 152 Christian refugees from Iraq to the Czech Republic who have been persecuted by radicals from the self-declared Islamic State organization. Representatives of the foundation gave a list of the refugees' names to the Office of the Government last Thursday and are now waiting for the Government and Interior Ministry to agree to receive them.  full story

Hungary: Ultra-right experiment in Ozd uses systematic oppression to drive Roma out

29.7.2015 3:49 The Associated Press reports that the Hungarian town of Ozd has become a kind of living "laboratory" where the ultra-right Jobbik party is testing the impact of its political decisions at local level. That at least is the warning of Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute organization, which has long monitored Jobbik's activities.  full story

Czech NGOs criticize public broadcaster's reality TV show of schools for spreading anti-Roma prejudice

28.7.2015 20:45 Eight nonprofit organizations including ROMEA, o.p.s. have sent the Council on Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) an open letter regarding public broadcaster Czech Television's "Class 8A" (Třída 8. A) reality television series. In their view the series, which began last year, contributes to the spread of prejudice and stereotypes about the Romani minority.  full story

Karel Holomek: Polemic with Václav Bělohradský about post-representative society

28.7.2015 1:17 Intra muros, extra muros – inside the "walls of Rome" or outside them: That is how Václav Bělohradský discusses earlier conceptions of society in an article published in the daily Právo entitled "Without nostalgia: On post-representational democracy", and he undoubtedly is right to do so. In the piece, he says he considers multiculturalism to be an "anti-Enlightenment utopia that has been going bankrupt before the eyes of
Europeans" for the last decade.  full story

RomArchive showcases the cultural contributions of Romani people

27.7.2015 23:19 On 26 June, the Advisory Group for RomArchive, the Digital Archive of the Roma, was established. The Archive has now launched operations, according to a press release issued by the Advisory Group.  full story

Czech bank survey shows almost half of SMEs would not hire a Romani person

27.7.2015 21:18 The Czech daily Právo has published the results of a survey undertaken by the ČSOB bank which has found that 48 % of the 500 small and medium enterprises contacted would not employ a Romani person. Nine out of 10 firms surveyed said they would never hire a person who had been convicted of embezzlement, robbery, theft or any violent crime.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum launches website for Roma Holocaust commemorations

27.7.2015 20:39 To mark the 71st anniversary of the Holocaust of the Roma (Pharrajimos) during WWII, the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has launched a website, www.2august.ertf.org. The NGO is calling for collaboration on establishing a "centralized information point" about this history.  full story

Another Czech town's ban on sitting outdoors takes effect

27.7.2015 19:32 In mid-July a "Generally Binding Ordinance on securing local affairs of public order and improving the town's appearance" took effect in the Czech town of Bílina. The ordinance names activities that are banned because they could disturb public order or contravene good morals, the protection of public health, property and safety, or because they could disturb the town's aesthetic appearance.  full story

Yet another Czech tabloid news server perpetrates a racist hoax

26.7.2015 20:53 On 16 July the European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced a significant finding in the area of racial discrimination. The court did not pronounce judgment on anyone, but merely expressed a legal opinion which an EU Member State court should now follow.  full story

Czech, Polish and Slovak neo-Nazis protest migrants in Ostrava, target Roma area - 63 right-wing extremists detained

25.7.2015 22:02 Two demonstrations were held in the center of Ostrava today, one in support of receiving refuguees and against xenophobia, and the other, organized by football hooligans and neo-Nazis, against receiving refugees. After both events were officially ended, some anti-immigrant demonstrators attempted to make their way into the Přívoz quarter, where many Romani people live.  full story

Andrzej Mirga, Roma Education Fund's new chair, on the European Roma Institute and more

25.7.2015 19:40 Andrzej Mirga, previously Senior Adviser on Roma and Sinti Issues at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, has recently been appointed chair of the Roma Education Fund. Mr Mirga has a long record as a civic and human rights activist, having co-founded Poland's first Romani association after the fall of communism.  full story

Czech broadcasting board criticizes TV NOVA for promoting anti-hate campaign

25.7.2015 3:12 News server Mediář, which reports on the Czech media, has broken the news that the Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) is criticizing the TV NOVA station for disproportionately emphasizing a "product", namely, the HateFree sticker that business owners can put in their windows, specifically as part of its series "Ulice" ("The Street"). The HateFree project, which is managed by the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, has purchased an advertising package of broadcasting times that include product placement of the campaign within the series and has paid roughly CZK 400 000 [EUR 14 800] for the spots so far.  full story