Czech Republic

Czech Television: Social networking sites buzzing before neo-Nazi march in Duchcov tomorrow

Prague, 21.6.2013 22:23, (ROMEA) Czech Television reports that right-wing extremists using Facebook in the Czech Republic have sprung to life over the past few days: News has been rapidly spreading about an alleged assault by Romani people at the Krásné Březno housing estate in Ústí nad Labem on a 16-year-old youth. While the case does exist, police are not issuing any information about it for the time being.  full story

Commentary: Absurdly low sentences for murderous hunt for Roma in Czech Republic

Prague, 20.6.2013 18:44, (ROMEA) A new wave of open antigypsyism has recently resurfaced in the Czech Republic, one of several in this country's recent history. Both poverty and unemployment are contributing factors to it.  full story

Czech Republic: Media blow yet another incident of interethnic violence out of proportion

Prague, 20.6.2013 1:06, (ROMEA) According to reports by some Czech media outlets and the responses to them in online discussions, it might seem as if multiple murders had just been committed in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem. However, according to reporting by TV Nova (which is otherwise normally known for its sensationalism) the incident at issue was actually a blow to the head with some sort of object, causing an injury that was treated with one stitch.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazi march vs. cultural assembly this weekend in Duchcov

Duchcov/Prague/Ústí nad Labem, 19.6.2013 22:34, (ROMEA) On Saturday 22 June an assembly and cultural program called "Čhikatar het/Z bahna ven" ("Out of the Mud") will take place in the North Bohemian town of Duchcov. The purpose of the assembly is to improve relations between neighbors in the town and to support the local community. The Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) has announced an anti-Roma gathering and march on that same day in Duchcov.  full story

Analysis: How to produce hate, or, Roma, the Czech floods, and the YMCA

Prague, 19.6.2013 20:43, (ROMEA) Unfortunately, a common thread running through the Czech media scene today is incitement to hatred against Romani people with the aid of "correctly" phrased disinformation, half-truths, and lies. This is no longer just the province of neo-Nazis and other extremists. Growing numbers of ordinary citizens, including some "journalists", are involved in this as well.  full story

Czech Govt to take up bill to establish central misdemeanor registry

Prague, 18.6.2013 17:19, (ROMEA) The Czech state could potentially establish a central registry for some misdemeanors so that recidivist perpetrators of those offenses can be punished more severely. That is the presumption of a draft amendment to the law on misdemeanors and other norms which the Czech Government is scheduled to review tomorrow.  full story

Czech Republic: Teplice residents say police there don't solve crimes with Romani victims

Teplice, 17.6.2013 18:05, (ROMEA) The main complaint being made by the Romani people who gathered in Teplice last Friday relates to the police and the fact that they do not take action in cases where Romani people are victims of crime. The recent murder of Ivan Jarka there was, in the view of the Romani community, a racist one.  full story

Czech President: Behind the slogan "Bohemia for the Czechs" I hear the Nazi cry of "Juden raus"!

Lidice, 15.6.2013 23:00, (ROMEA) Czech President Miloš Zeman warned against Nazism at today's ceremony marking the 71st anniversary of the annihilation of Lidice by Nazi soldiers. In his view, that ideology is still present in society today, albeit in embryonic form.  full story

Czech town's security survey attests long-held stereotypical attitides of mistrust toward Roma

Frýdek-Místek , 15.6.2013 19:29, (ROMEA) The official website of the Czech municipality of Frýdek-Místek reports that the Department of Security Risks and Crime Prevention at the Frýdek-Místek town hall conducted a survey of residents at the start of this year about security in the town. The aim of the survey was to determine what and whom citizens are most concerned about in order to most effectively design and implement crime prevention projects to increase security in the town and make citizens feel safer.  full story

videoCzech Republic: Demonstration against intolerance in Teplice draws less than 100 people

Teplice, 14.6.2013 17:15, (ROMEA) Almost 100 people, most of them Romani, gathered on the main square in the North Bohemian town of Teplice today for a peaceful demonstration "Against Intolerance" to honor the memory of Ivan Jarka. The event is a direct response to Jarka's recent murder, which local Romani residents unequivocally describe as having been racially motivated. Police reportedly disagree with that assessment.  full story

Commentary: When ignorance of the law produces racism

Prague, 13.6.2013 20:53, (ROMEA) After the recent incidents in Duchcov (see http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-police-only-one-romani-person-involved-in-new-incident-in-duchcov) discussion of a supposed "double standard" in the Czech legal system has once again taken off on social networking sites. For now, only verbal attacks are being made in general against all the members of a particular minority in this society, one that allegedly does not obey the laws and abuses the welfare system (those attacks, however, could soon become physical as well).  full story

Patrik Banga resigns from Czech Govt Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs

Prague, 13.6.2013 0:17, (ROMEA) Journalist Patrik Banga has resigned from his post as a civil society member on the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs. In his opinion, no one is taking the Commission seriously as an advisory body to the government.  full story

Czech Republic: Roma quintuplets get arson threats, their supporter gets hacked

Prague, 12.6.2013 23:32, (ROMEA) The first quintuplets to be born in the Czech Republic are doing well and were transferred today to a less intensive care unit of the hospital. They will be able to go home in roughly one month.  full story

Roma entrepreneur offers village free aid after Czech floods, is refused

Trutnov, 12.6.2013 17:29, (ROMEA) Entrepreneur Jaroslav Herák has offered the village of Rudník near Trutnov assistance after the recent floods there. He offered the use of his construction firm's technology and 10 people to run it, plus more people to help with the cleanup, all for free.  full story

videoCzech organizer of anti-Roma demonstrations doesn't recall expressing a desire for mass murder

Duchcov/Prague, 10.6.2013 22:50, (ROMEA) Jan Dufek, the man who was so looking forward to Czech citizens finally rising up to murder off Romani people, is now claiming that he doesn't stand by what he said. "I was upset and unfortunately I can't take it back now," Dufek has told news server iDNES.cz.  full story

Platform for Social Housing meets with Czech Regional Development Minister

Prague, 10.6.2013 21:13, (ROMEA) Today a "happening" by the Platform for Social Housing called "Slippers belong in homes" was held on the Old Town Square in Prague in front of the Czech Regional Development Ministry. The Platform issued a press release on this occasion which news server Romea.cz publishes in full translation below. Czech Regional Development Minister Kamil Jankovský received two representatives of the platform, Prague spokesperson Štěpán Ripka and coordinator Jan Milota.  full story

Commentary: Let's distance ourselves from Roma who give us a bad reputation

Prague, 8.6.2013 19:09, (ROMEA) What do you think the effect is of headlines like the following: “Roma commit another brutal attack: 12-year-old boy beaten with sticks in Duchcov!" Many Czech people read that information and think: "Again? How much longer and we going to stand for this? Why is everyone conniving with them, even closing down the internet discussions so we can't even say our piece?!"  full story

Czech pub owner alleges attack by looters during flood

8.6.2013 18:27, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that pub owner Ladislav Kratochvíl of the Czech town of Olšinky has told police in Ústí nad Labem that he was beaten up by thieves whom he startled in his business in the pre-dawn hours of last Monday. He has identified the intruders as Romani.  full story

videoCzech Republic: Conveners of demonstration in Duchcov push for mass murder of Romani people

Duchcov/Prague, 7.6.2013 17:45, (ROMEA) Jan Dufek and Jindřich Svoboda are the organizers of what so far has been just one anti-Roma demonstration in the Czech town of Duchcov, a protest that was followed by an attempted march on Romani people's residences, but the pair have announced other demonstrations for the future. Mayor Jitka Bártová recently did her best to calm the situation in the town after the demonstration by convening a public discussion.  full story

Commentary: Violence in Duchov and Teplice, superficial media are worsening coexistence

Prague, 6.6.2013 21:53, (ROMEA) This commentary was originally published in Czech on 29 May 2013.  full story