News

Documentary shows Roma from Slovak settlements singing with non-Romani musicians

26.3.2015 19:41, (ROMEA) Hundreds of ancient Romani songs have been collected by the ethnomusicologist Jana Belišová during her long-term research in Slovakia. Her meetings with Romani musicians there inspired her to undertake a new project bringing non-Romani and Romani musicians together.  full story

Czech News Agency produces biased, stereotyping report about Janov housing estate

25.3.2015 20:51, (ROMEA) In its 24 March report about the events around the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, the Czech News Agency, an independent public wire service, has committed some serious infractions against the "objective" reporting that is its mission under the law. The criticism levied by media analyses showing that Romani people ("inadaptables") are depicted stereotypically by the Czech media applies to this wire service to a great extent .
 full story

Czech ministers of human rights and labor to review situation at Janov housing estate

Litvínov, 25.3.2015 19:07, (ROMEA) The situation at the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov, according to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, will be reviewed by his fellow Social Democrats in the cabinet, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier and Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová. The PM has written as much to the initiators of a petition who complained of their allegedly impossible coexistence at the housing estate with socially vulnerable residents, primarily Romani ones.
 full story

Slovakia: Number of extremist crimes drops

Bratislava, Slovakia, 25.3.2015 18:55, (ROMEA) The number of crimes connected with extremism and racial motivation has fallen in Slovakia in recent years. The Slovak Interior Ministry announced these findings on 20 March.  full story

Internet discussions: To delete, or not to delete?

25.3.2015 17:23, (ROMEA) The vast majority of democrats are advocates of the broadest possible freedom of speech, because no democracy can exist without it. Those who back an absolute freedom of speech, however, are most frequently recruited, paradoxically, from the ranks of those who disseminate pornography or racism, people whom it may difficult for the rest of us to consider democrats.  full story

Greece: Neo-Nazi boss released from custody awaiting trial

Athens, 24.3.2015 18:34, (ROMEA) On Friday a Greek court decided to release Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the head of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, from custody. Greek media report that he has been transferred to house arrest.  full story

Czech Republic: 17.5 years for two counts of attempted murder of homeless people

Prague, 24.3.2015 18:04, (ROMEA) A court has sentenced Jan Mokrý, a college student, to 17.5 years in prison for two counts of attempted murder against homeless people in Prague. The young man told the court that he admires Adolf Hitler, confessed to the crimes, and said he regretted that his victims had survived.  full story

Czech Republic: NGO director says young educated Roma must enter politics

23.3.2015 23:15, (ROMEA) The main aim of the Roma Leadership Program of the nonprofit organization Slovo 21 is for 16 chosen young Romani people to learn how to become leadership figures and eventually get involved in local or even national politics. Educated Roma people who are currently studying or who have already graduated from college have been selected to participate.  full story

Karel Holomek: We cannot reconcile ourselves to segregation

23.3.2015 19:32, (ROMEA) The term "inclusive education" (inkluzívní vzdělávání) is turning up at a high frequency now and as a matter of course in all circles in the Czech Republic, both among experts and among lay people. We have all accepted it, whether we feel negatively or positively about it, without realizing that we have much more apposite, precise words already in Czech for what we might mean when we use this phrase.  full story

France: Director makes action film with itinerant Roma

22.3.2015 21:28, (ROMEA) French director Jean-Charles Hue has long been involved in making films about an itinerant Romani family in the south of France. His third feature-length film once again features several time-tested representatives of this community in a movie that combines the action thriller genre with stylistic elements of film noir.
 full story

videoWorld Water Day: Let's talk about Roma in Europe

22.3.2015 18:42, (ROMEA) Most of us take clean water for granted. It is abundant, provided directly in our homes, and checked continuously to ensure it meets quality and safety standards. Images of long treks to access water, sometimes through difficult or dangerous terrain, are associated in our minds with other continents, where we imagine that this time-consuming and labour-intensive task is a part of daily life for some people. Yet all across Europe there are people living without access to clean water and many of them are Roma.  full story

videoCzech Republic: Romani charity ball raises money for children's home

Ústí nad Labem, 22.3.2015 1:25, (ROMEA) The second annual Romani Charity Ball took place on Friday, 20 March 2015 in the House of Culture in Ústí nad Labem, raising CZK 50 000 (EUR 1 820) for children living in a children's home there. Mayor Josef Zikmund gave his auspices to the ball and contributed CZK 10 000 from his own fund, while those in attendance collected the remaining CZK 40 000.  full story

Ukraine: Roma in Transcarpathia fear hunger, mobilization and the police

21.3.2015 23:59, (ROMEA) News server Romea.cz has interviewed Romani studies scholar Michael Beníšek about the everyday life of Romani people in the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod and its environs, their concerns, identity and language, their relationship toward the gadje, their love of Bollywood films and the new wave of Romani refugees from Transcarpathia now entering Britain with Hungarian passports. Beníšek studied Indology and Romani Studies at the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he then remained at the Romani Studies Seminar as an educator  full story

Czech Republic: New book transforms views of Romani literature

21.3.2015 21:05, (ROMEA) The Czech literary monthly Host (Guest) has reviewed a collection of stories called "The Sun Sets in the Morning" (Slunce zapadá už ráno), the Romani authors of which won a 2014 Roma Spirit award. The Host review focuses on the authorial experiences to date of Eva Danišová, Irena Eliášová, Jana Hejkrlíková and Iveta Kokyová, saying that they focus on "women's" themes because their works discuss the issues of family and partner relationships, generational change, the position of Romani women in their community and outside it, or recollections of childhood.  full story

Fedor Gál: Czech President should not go to Moscow

21.3.2015 20:06, (ROMEA) In an interview for the Czech News Agency, Slovak sociologist and former dissident Fedor Gál, who celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday, said that nostalgic recollections of the communist era 25 years after the fall of the regime are incomprehensible to him. The founding member of the "Public against Violence" movement said he also does not understand why people hate the politicians them themselves elect.  full story

EU representative says terrorists might pose as immigrants

21.3.2015 18:24, (ROMEA) European Union Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove has warned of the risk that Islamist terrorists posing as refugees could enter Europe. He has also called on the EU agency for border control, Frontex, to be even more alert when it comes to migrants from Iraq, Libya and Syria in particular.  full story

Slovakia: Roma Plenipotentiary asks Prosecutor-General to review case of police abuse of Romani boys

21.3.2015 1:03, (ROMEA) The Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities, Peter Pollák, is asking the Prosecutor-General to supervise the prosecution of a case involving the abuse of Romani boys by police. "I have been following the development of this much-publicized case of the humiliating, unprofessional treatment of young Romani boys by police officers at the Košice–Jih Police Department since it began in 2009. I have seen the video recording of officers forcing these boys to strip naked, slapping them, and cursing their Romani origins. I would like to highlight the fact that the prosecutor has filed an appeal after the court issued its verdict, is ensuring compliance with the law by the state authorities in this case, and is focusing on the legality of the court's assessment of the evidence. Like the prosecutor, I too do not agree with the justification presented by the presiding judge, according to whom 'evidence acquired through multiple transfers from one device to another cannot meet the legal requirements of evidence in order to clarify what actually occurred, because the evidence was not acquired in accordance with the applicable legal regulations'," Pollák has posted to his official website.  full story

Czech Republic: Zlín Region supporting Romani integration

20.3.2015 22:49, (ROMEA) Six projects targeting Romani minority integration will be supported this year by the Zlín Region. Organizers will receive some part of the total amount of CZK 350 000 (EUR 12 750) that regional councilors have approved.  full story

France: Comedian gets suspended sentence for defending terrorism

20.3.2015 22:11, (ROMEA) A French comic has received a suspended sentence for defending terrorism. Agence France-Presse reports that controversial French humorist Dieudonné, who was on trial for glorifying terrorism, was given a two-month suspended sentence in Paris yesterday.  full story

Commentary: What can be expected of European Union meetings on Roma?

20.3.2015 21:39, (ROMEA) Will the position of Romani people in the European Union ever improve? Does the EU have the concepts in place and enough tools available to effectively boost the integration of the Romani minority?  full story