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European Commission not satisfied with Czech response to discrimination of Romani children

Brussels/Prague, 15.1.2015 16:57, (ROMEA) According to new information reported by Czech Television, the European Commission is not satisfied with the response of the Czech Government regarding the issue of the discrimination of Romani children in the schools. An official response to the Government will be sent by Brussels within the next few weeks.  full story

Czech anti-drug police arrest local Romani councilor

Ústí nad Labem, 15.1.2015 16:11, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that detectives have charged Marcel Cichý, a local councilor and teacher at a primary school in Trmice, with distributing drugs. Cichý and other Romani candidates in the "Together for Trmice" (Independent Choice) movement won election to the local council last October with 19.22 % of the vote, ending up in second place and taking three seats.  full story

Czech Government grants asylum to 15 families from Syria

Prague, 15.1.2015 0:21, (ROMEA) The Czech Government has agreed to grant asylum to refugees from Syria. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek (Christian Democrats - KDU-ČSL) announced the decision on Twitter on 14 January.  full story

Austria rescinds ban on adoption by same-sex couples

Vienna, 14.1.2015 23:49, (ROMEA) The Austrian Constitutional Court has rescinded the country's ban on same-sex couples adopting children. The Austrian Press Agency reports that Judge Gerhart Holzinger announced the judgment today.  full story

Czech Republic: Local theater company stages German play about brutal neo-Nazi murder

Ústí nad Labem, 14.1.2015 22:54, (ROMEA) The Činoherák Ústí theater club is producing a play entitled "The Kick" by Andres Veiel and Gesine Schmidt, based on the true story of the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy in the East German village of Potzlow. The ensemble will hold a preview performance at the Činoherní studio (Drama Studio) in the Střekov quarter on Friday.  full story

Commentary: Multiculturalism has succeeded and is our greatest chance for peaceful coexistence

Prague, 14.1.2015 20:33, (ROMEA) Multiculturalism has succeeded and continues to be our greatest chance for peaceful coexistence, not only in the Euro-Atlantic world, but for the whole planet. Never before has the civilized world, led by intellectual elites of all faiths, been so united in condemning radical Islamists.
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Czech Republic enters next round of the fight over Romani children and special education

Prague, 14.1.2015 18:22, (ROMEA) The fact that too many children, particularly Romani ones, attend "special schools" in the Czech Republic is a problem that experts and politicians have been discussing here for 25 years. It is also being discussed abroad, because the Czech Republic has reaped criticism from the European Union for it as well.  full story

Czech Republic: Hundreds of illegally sterilized women will probably be compensated

Prague, 14.1.2015 17:09, (ROMEA) The victims of illegal sterilizations could be compensated as much as CZK 300 000 (EUR 10 000) in the coming years. Those who did not give their informed consent to such an operation prior to undergoing it would be eligible for compensation.  full story

More than 50 physical and verbal attacks committed against Muslims in France

Ankara/Berlin/Paris, 14.1.2015 0:22, (ROMEA) The repercussions of last week's terrorist attack in France are still reverberating worldwide. The French continue to feel threatened, the terrorists are praising each other, tens of thousands of Germans have taken to the streets, Germany's eurosceptic party is arguing with itself, and the number of attacks against Muslims is rising in France  full story

Commentary: European demonstrations for unity give us hope, demagogues take it away

Paris/Prague, 13.1.2015 19:24, (ROMEA) On Sunday 11 January, millions demonstrated in Paris for social unity, with French citizens across all of society taking up a common cause. "We must not create amalgams," the French are saying.  full story

Czech-language Facebook page slanders Romani organizations as anti-Islam

Prague, 13.1.2015 17:12, (ROMEA) A recently-created Czech-language Facebook page has been created by anonymous administrators who are slandering Romani initiatives. The name of the page is "Roma against Islam" (Romové proti islámu).  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister says President Zeman's remarks about ghettos too simplistic

Prague, 13.1.2015 16:08, (ROMEA) The first meeting of 2015 between Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier and the press was dominated by topics concerning Romani people and the relationship of the majority society towards them. The minister answered questions from news server Romea.cz, the RESPEKT weekly, the Deník franchise of daily papers and the Prima television station.  full story

Germany: Tens of thousands march in Dresden against Pegida and hatred

Dresden, 12.1.2015 19:47, (ROMEA) Tens of thousands of people gathered in Dresden on Saturday for a demonstration convened in support of good relations and the openness of German society to the rest of the world. The event is yet another response to the anti-Islamic demonstrations being held in the Saxon capital by the "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West" (Pegida) movement.  full story

France: Le Pen Senior says Charlie Hebdo is "anarchist and Trotskyist"

Paris, 12.1.2015 19:21, (ROMEA) Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's ultra-right, said Saturday that he does not like the slogan "Je suis Charlie" now being used by millions of people to express sympathy with Charlie Hebdo magazine. The father of the current boss of the anti-immigrant Front National (FN) party said that while he regrets the victims of the fatal attack on the editorial offices of the satirical weekly, he must criticize the works of its caricaturists.  full story

Newspapers also attacked in Belgium and Germany, EU and USA to increase cooperation

Berlin/Brussels/Paris, 12.1.2015 18:51, (ROMEA) The editorial offices of the northern Germany newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, which reprinted the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, became the target of an arson attack over the weekend. Police say no one was physically injured.
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Czech Republic: Girls invent story of assault by Roma, media must retract claims

Litvínov, 12.1.2015 17:50, (ROMEA) The infamous "journalist" Jan Vraný, who is behind the E-mostecko local online news server, has attempted to incite his readers against Romani people once more. However, he has only partially succeeded this time.  full story

Czech religious organizations call on public to resist radicalism

Prague, 10.1.2015 23:02, (ROMEA) The chair of the Czech Bishop's Conference, Dominik Duka, the chair of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, Daniel Fakfr, and the chair of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, Petr Papoušek, jointly called on the public today not to succumb to radicalism as a result of the anger they might feel over the Islamist terrorists in France. "It is still necessary to insist on the basic principles of an open society. We must primarily insist on freedom of speech, on human rights, and on mutual respect between cultures and religions, as well as on seeking the road of common coexistence," the religious leaders say in a statement made available to the Czech News Agency.  full story

Commentary: Czech anger and the Roma

Prague, 10.1.2015 21:34, (ROMEA) The most recent survey of Czech public opinion and trust in political institutions shows falling voter preferences for the ultra-right DSSS party, confirming the good feeling shared by many people, including this author, that our society is rebounding after hitting rock bottom. However, that is no reason to be rocked into complacency.  full story

Czech director of documentary about quintuplets: There is truth on both sides

Prague, 9.1.2015 22:19, (ROMEA) "I believe there is some truth on each side here and that this is just only about communication," said Alena Derzsiová, the director of a 13-part documentary series about the first year in the life of the Czech Republic's first-ever quintuplets, when asked about the dispute that has arisen between their patron, Klára Vítková-Rulíková, and the quintuplets' mother, Alexandra Kiňová. Speaking this morning on Czech Television's Studio 6 broadcast, Derzsiová said the recent interview given by Vítková-Rulíková to news server Onadnes.cz was unfortunate at the very least.  full story

Czech PM rejects Poland's alleged complaint about Holocaust event

Prague, 9.1.2015 21:11, (ROMEA) Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) has rejected claims published in the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopaczova has complained about an international commemoration of the end of the Holocaust to be held in the Czech Republic at the end of January. In a press release, Sobotka said he had received no such communication from his Polish colleague and that the events to be held in the Czech Republic will not compete with Poland's own commemorative gathering.  full story