Czech Republic

Czech human rights defender calls for media regulation in light of anti-Roma events

16.9.2013 21:26, (ROMEA) Anna Šabatová, a human rights defender and former chair of the Czech Helsinki Committee, says educating children in the schools to be racially tolerant and regulating the media and public discussions are the cure for widespread anti-Romani sentiment in society. The Czech Security Information Service (Bezpečnostní informační služba - BIS) has recently joined the Czech Helsinki Committee in warning of the dangers of antigypsyism in the country, reporting that anti-Romani demonstrations are no longer being attended just by right-wing extremists, but also by ordinary people.  full story

Czech Republic: Nine Romani men and women running for or with Green Party in early parliamentary elections

Prague, 16.9.2013 17:15, (ROMEA) A total of nine Romani men and women will be running for the lower house in the early elections for the Green Party (Strana Zelených - SZ). Two are Green Party members, while the rest are running as part of the party's collaboration with the Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí - SRP). News server Romea.cz will be gradually publishing a series of interviews with these particular candidates.  full story

Czech Republic: Racists' weekend demos are debacles

České Budějovice/Varnsdorf, 16.9.2013 1:13, (ROMEA) Two hate actions planned by racists in the Czech Republic for Saturday, 14 September have both ended in total fiasco. An assembly by the neo-Nazi "Czech Lions" (Čeští lvi) group never got off the ground in České Budějovice, while only 60 people turned out for a rally by the right-wing extremist DSSS in Varnsdorf.  full story

Czech Police to charge publisher for releasing Hitler's speeches

Brno, 14.9.2013 22:11, (ROMEA) The Czech Police are evidently planning to soon charge Pavel Kamas, the owner of the Guidemedia publishing house, with approving, denying and questioning genocide by recently releasing a book called Adolf Hitler: Speeches (Adolf Hitler: Projevy). Author Lukáš Beer and Guidemedia itself are also evidently going to be prosecuted for the same offense.  full story

Czech Republic: Charity refutes rumors that Romani people receive more child support from state than others

České Budějovice, 14.9.2013 19:54, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reports that the Diocesan Charity of České Budějovice (Diecézní charita České Budějovice) is refuting yet another widespread, false rumor about the alleged privileging of Romani people. Rudolf Kondáš, the newly-hired crime prevention assistant to the municipal police at the Máj housing estate there, says he hopes this summer's police operations at the housing estate in response to neo-Nazi provocations there will not have to be repeated.  full story

Czech Republic: Residential hotel tenants have no choice but to return to burned-out, toxic facility

Ústí nad Labem, 13.9.2013 18:36, (ROMEA) On the afternoon of 12 September, part of the Freedom residential hotel in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem was burned to cinders. All of the occupants, approximately 40 people, had to evacuate the building.  full story

Czech NGO launches ad campaign about anti-Roma prejudice

Brno, 13.9.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) Starting on 9 September, people traveling by public transportation in the Czech city of Brno have been able to see 800 posters from an ongoing campaign by the Brno-based organization IQ Roma servis. The posters describe situations where Roma are working and want to work, but are blocked by the prejudices that give all Roma a bad reputation.  full story

Czech Gov't Council on Nat'l Minorities retracts 2012 report over claims of "Russian fifth column"

Prague, 13.9.2013 1:37, (ROMEA) The Czech News Agency reports that the cabinet has re-approved a report by the Government Council on National Minorities about the situation for national minorities in the Czech Republic in 2012. The report was first taken up and approved in mid-August, but was then retracted over information it contained about the Russian minority.  full story

Czech Journalists' Syndicate says news outlet broke the law on spreading racial hatred

Prague/Prostějov, 12.9.2013 18:36, (ROMEA) The governing body of the Journalists' Syndicate in the Czech Republic (Syndikát novinářů ČR) has passed a resolution declaring that an article recently published in the Prostějovský Večerník (Prostějov Evening News) entitled "Gypsy attacks are multiplying!" ("Cikánské útoky se množí!") not only contravenes the Syndicate's code of ethics but violates the law. News server Romea.cz was the first to report on the article and the overall behavior of the Prostějovský Večerník editors (see http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/analysis-czech-news-outlet-misleads-readers-by-mastering-photoshop).  full story

Interior Ministry not registering "Czech Lions", by law they are an "unpermitted association"

Prague, 11.9.2013 18:31, (ROMEA) The Czech Interior Ministry has refused to register the "Czech Lions" (Čeští lvi) association. "The articles of incorporation of this association do not comply with the Law on Associations," Břetislav Oliva of the ministry's Department of Press and Public Relations told news server Romea.cz.  full story

Czech Helsinki Committee: Neo-Nazi, ultra-conservative and fascististic fighters gear up for elections

Prague, 11.9.2013 16:49, (ROMEA) The Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor - ČHV), which monitors adherence to human rights in the Czech Republic, has published its 19th Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic. The ČHV is the only organization in the Czech Republic to publish this report regularly since 1994. The complete "Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic for 2012" (Zpráva o stavu lidských práv v České republice za rok 2012) is available online in Czech only at http://helcom.cz/ke-stazeni/zpravy-o-stavu-lidskych-prav-v-cr/.  full story

Leading Czech right-wing extremist acquitted for lack of evidence

Most, 11.9.2013 15:29, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reported last week that right-wing extremist Lucie Šlégrová, one of the organizers of an attempted pogrom in 2008 on Romani people living at the Janov housing estate in the Czech town of Litvínov, has won a complicated, lengthy trial at the court of first instance in Most. Šlégrová, who was once an influential member of the neo-Nazi Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS), which has since been dissolved by court order, faced charges of promoting German Nazism, which is banned.  full story

Czech anti-racist activist Míra Brož: Pogroms with Romani deaths, or a Romani Malcolm X, may be the future

Ústí nad Labem, 10.9.2013 19:55, (ROMEA) In this interview with the pro-Romani activist Míra Brož of the Konexe civic association, we discuss the current situation among activists, the state of civil society, the role of nonprofit organizations, and the dangers flowing from both right-wing extremism and radicalization inside Romani communities in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Chief Rabbi: Racist prejudice in communities who have themselves been targeted by racism is especially damnable

Prague, 9.9.2013 23:45, (ROMEA) The Jewish people are celebrating the arrival of New Year 5774 and the subsequent holiday of Yom Kippur. Here in the Czech Republic, the start of the new year is accompanied by a rising wave of anti-Roma demonstrations organized by neo-Nazis and participated in by ordinary people.  full story

Commentary: Neo-Nazis don't belong in Kraslice, they just want money and violence

Kraslice, 7.9.2013 0:00, (ROMEA) Tomorrow a hate march will be held in the town of Kraslice in the Karlovy Vary region. Under the pretext of an election rally, the march is being convened by the neo-Nazi DSSS party, led by Tomáš Vandas.  full story

Czech state prosecutor objects to release of Romani people charged with Duchcov attack, they remain in custody

Duchcov, 6.9.2013 22:48, (ROMEA) The state prosecutor has filed a complaint against a recent decision to release from custody the three Romani people who assaulted a non-Romani married couple this past May in the town of Duchcov, an incident that prompted an ongoing series of anti-Roma demonstrations there. The defendants are remaining in custody for the time being.  full story

Commentary: Protection under the law applies to everyone equally, it's shameful to traffic in it

Prague, 6.9.2013 22:04, (ROMEA) When I read the news recently that representatives of a group of Roma in Ostrava had offered to turn in delinquents in exchange for better police protection against right-wing extremists, I thought it was a bad joke. It wasn't.  full story

Czech Police refute yet another false anti-Roma report spread by Duchcov DSSS cell

Duchcov, 5.9.2013 18:45, (ROMEA) The Duchcov cell of the right-wing extremist Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), which is led by convicted con artist Jindřich Svoboda, is continuing to do its best to spark anti-Romani sentiment there. Right-wing extremists have begun to spread untrue information about a Romani man allegedly breaking into a woman's apartment and attempting to rape her.  full story

Czech Republic: The two faces of ODS - Populism vs. reality

Prague, 4.9.2013 17:55, (ROMEA) On 23 August 2013, the press spokesperson for the Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana - ODS) verbally promised that the party would be issuing a statement on the anti-Roma demonstrations planned for the next day across the country. The party has yet to issue an official statement on those events.  full story

Europe Roma International assembly in Prague calls for stricter laws against right-wing extremism

Prague, 3.9.2013 16:47, (ROMEA) At 14:00 today about 15 protesters gathered in Prague in front of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic to deliver government representatives a declaration from the Europe Roma International (ERI) initiative. Miroslav Tancoš, chair of the Romani Democratic Party (Romská demokratická strana - RDS) read the declaration to the assembly.  full story