News

Czech man convicted of racially motivated murder wants a retrial

7.4.2015 0:47 Vlastimil Pechanec, who was sentenced in 2003 to 17 years in prison for the racially motivated murder of a Romani man at a discotheque in the Czech town of Svitavy, has filed a motion for a retrial. Olga Mičanová, spokesperson for the court in Hradec Králové, informed the Czech News Agency of the motion last week.  full story

Czech customs officials detain 15 Syrian refugees at Rozvadov

7.4.2015 0:11 Fifteen Syrian refugees were discovered by Czech customs officials from Plzeň on Friday at around 8 PM when they checked a Hungarian van at the Rozvadov border crossing. The refugees were heading to Germany on the D5 highway.  full story

Czech Republic: Overview of International Romani Day events

6.4.2015 20:48, (ROMEA) On Wednesday, 8 April, Romani people worldwide will celebrate International Romani Day. This commemorates the historical first congress of the International Romani Union in Great Britain in 1971, where participants adopted the Romani flag and international anthem.  full story

German minister says arsonists of refugee facilities are "cowardly and repulsive"

6.4.2015 19:11 A fire was intentionally set in the eastern German municipality of Tröglitz in the early morning hours of 4 April at a planned residential hotel facility for refugees. No one was physically injured.  full story

Czech survey shows welfare less acceptable than murder or stealing

5.4.2015 23:01 Czechs believe that living on welfare is worse than either murdering someone believed to be a thief or committing theft itself. Those are the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Center for Public Opinion Research (CVVM).  full story

Commentary: Why are they setting up a European Roma Institute?

5.4.2015 21:30, (ROMEA) Under this heading - substitute with "we" - billionaire George Soros and Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland published this comment week before last.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry gives award to crime prevention assistant

5.4.2015 2:52 He maintained his presence of mind, calmed a very exacerbated situation and called emergency medical technicians and police to the scene. Crime prevention assistant Ján Polyák, who has become an inherent component of the Brno Municipal Police team, has been given special recognition by the Czech Interior Ministry for handling the circumstances of a traffic accident on Cejl Street in Brno that he witnessed while off-duty.  full story

video"Romani Black Panthers" undertake "guerilla action" in a Prague supermarket

5.4.2015 2:02 On Tuesday, 24 March, the art group Romane Kale Panthera (Romani Black Panthers) presented an exhibition at the Hraničář Gallery in Ústí nad Labem about their "guerilla action" called "Happy Pork from Lety" ("Veselý vepřík z Letů"). Through this action, the group attempted to draw public attention to the fact that a pig farm still stands on a Romani Holocaust memorial site in Lety by Písek, that the Czech Government promised to get rid of the farm in the 1990s, and that the state has still not bought out the farm.  full story

Czech Republic: Negotiations to expand scope of ombud's remit continue in the legislature

Prague, 5.4.2015 1:19, (ROMEA) The Czech lower house did not succumb to efforts by right-wing legislators to reject the Government's bill to expand the remit of the ombud during a first reading. If the bill is adopted, the Public Defender of Rights (the ombud) would receive the right to propose that the Constitutional Court overturn legislation, as well as the right to file lawsuits in cases of discrimination; critics of the change say this would place the institution at the same level as that of the Czech President.  full story

videoNews server Romea.cz switching to Disqus for online discussions

Prague, 4.4.2015 23:48, (ROMEA) As of 31 March 2015, a new system is being used by news server Romea.cz for readers to comment on our articles. Before now we have been using Facebook.  full story

Discrimination proceedings launched against Czech property management company over Roma segregation

4.4.2015 22:41 News server Romea.cz has been exclusively informed by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (Česká obchodní inspekce - ČOI) that it has launched an administrative proceedings against the CPI BYTY a.s. firm after investigating them on suspicions of discriminating against Romani clients. The Janov housing estate, where CPI BYTY manages some properties, recently drew the attention of media and politicians after some local residents there addressed a petition to the Czech Prime Minister complaining they are being "terrorized by the Gypsy minority".  full story

Analysis: Roma replace Muslims as main target for Czech hate online

4.4.2015 21:30 Hatred on the Czech-language Internet has returned to its traditional target, Romani people, as a result of the declining outrage over January's attacks in Paris, when Muslims became the main target of Czech-language online hate. Current data from the Yeseter company measuring the intensity of hatred and its trends for the HateFree Culture initiative reveal several interesting facts, including the fact that most "haters" don't focus on a single theme, but can flow freely from "hating" one group to another.  full story

Czech TV journalist Richard Samko on the "Romani star" scandal

4.4.2015 19:10 It took me a few days to be able to write a response to the article recently published by Mf DNES and iDNES.cz about Klaudia Dudová. I am disgusted.  full story

Slovakia: Mayor and Romani residents say police brutalized them, police deny it

Slovakia, 4.4.2015 2:25 Approximately 200 - 300 Romani people gathered on 3 April outside the local authority in the municipality of Vrbnica (Michalovce District) to protest a police intervention that took place during a house-to-house search there on Thursday, 2 April code-named "100". Mayor Jaroslav Tokár held a press conference to report that several people had been injured during what he said was a brutal police intervention.  full story

Commentary: Tabloids are based on stupidity, with racism as a side effect

4.4.2015 1:05 "I knew she was the actress from the film 'The Way Out'. That was a guarantee for me of a certain seriousness. I told myself that it's not possible that all Roma are the same," says a landlord whom Klaudia Dudová owes approximately CZK 25 000 in back rent.  full story

Slovakia: Blaze in Romani settlement deprives 70 people of housing

3.4.2015 23:54 A fire broke out on Monday, 30 March in a Romani settlement in the municipality of Malcov, Bardějov district in Slovakia. A total of 15 cabins were burned to the ground and approximately 70 people were made homeless, 30 of them children; no one was injured.  full story

US Ambassador to OSCE: Roma issues are Europe's unfinished human rights business

3.4.2015 23:30, (ROMEA) In advance of International Romani Day on 8 April, US Ambassador to the OSCE Daniel B. Baer held a press conference about how the OSCE works on Roma issues. Journalists from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Slovakia and the United States joined the teleconference, including Romea.cz.  full story

Klaudia Dudová responds to Czech article about back rent: "I wanted to help my family"

3.4.2015 0:42 In response to an article entitled "Award-winning star of the film 'The Way Out' owes back rent" ("Oceněná hvězda filmu Cesta ven dluží na nájemném") published by the Czech news server iDNES.cz and on the front page of the print edition of the daily Mladá fronta DNES under the headline "Star Romani actress never paid for apartment" ("Romská herecká hvězda neplatila za byt") on 1 April 2015, as well as in response to many related media stories, the production team of the film "The Way Out" has published the following response from Klaudia Dudová  full story

Czech journalists criticize paper for article about Romani actress's alleged debts

2.4.2015 23:23, (ROMEA) Yesterday, 1 April, the front page of the Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES and the main page of its online news server iDNES.cz featured an article by reporter Artur Janoušek with the headline "Star Romani actress never paid for apartment" ("Romská herecká hvězda neplatila za byt"). While the vast majority of those posting comments to news server iDNES.cz were enthusiastic about this news and posted racist comments about it, some journalists are horrified by the lengths to which this daily, previously considered "serious", has gone by publishing the piece - many still cannot believe this was not actually an April Fool's joke or that the paper can have been serious about publishing it.  full story

Romea.cz Code of Discussion

2.4.2015 15:44 On the basis of our experiences with offering discussion space beneath each article we have decided to create a Code of Discussion for news server Romea.cz. This code is not new and exists on many news servers.  full story