Czech Republic

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

Czech Republic: Equal Opportunities Party and Roma Democratic Party field EP candidates

Prague, 18.3.2014 22:09, (ROMEA) A total of 39 political groups have registered their candidates for this year's elections to the European Parliament with the Czech Interior Ministry. There are six more candidates this time than there were during the last EP elections five years ago.  full story

Czech PM promises Council of Europe to address root causes of Roma discrimination

Prague/Strasbourg, 18.3.2014 19:30, (ROMEA) In a letter to Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Nils Muižnieks, recently expressed concern over anti-Romani events and rhetoric in the Czech Republic. In his reply, the Czech PM now says his government will be standing up to discrimination and violence against Romani people and will do its best to address the root causes of their marginalization in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: urgent action needed to protect Roma from racist extremism

Strasbourg, 18.3.2014 10:42, (ROMEA) “I am deeply concerned about the emerging pattern of anti-Roma events in the Czech Republic – many led by racist extremists groups and organised simultaneously in different localities across the country. Their increased frequency and determined rhetoric against the Roma community call for a comprehensive response from the Czech authorities,” said today Nis Muižnieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, publishing a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Mr Bohuslav Sobotka.  full story

Commentary: The new era of the Czech tabloid martyr

Prague, 17.3.2014 19:04, (ROMEA) During the past two weeks the Czech tabloid daily Blesk has undertaken a new practice that might be increasing its readership, but is also contributing to worsening the already bad relations between the majority society and the Romani minority. The editors at Blesk have published two articles in a brief space of time featuring detailed photographs of the faces of assault victims.  full story

Czech festival gives highest prize to documentary about racist murders of Roma in Hungary

Prague, 17.3.2014 17:36, (ROMEA) "Judgment in Hungary" has won the prize for Best Film at the One World human rights documentary film festival in the Czech Republic. The main jury said director Eszter Hajdú's recording of the trial of four right-wing extremists charged with murdering Romani people provides audiences with a devastating view of contemporary society.  full story