News

Statement by Secretary of State John Kerry on International Roma Day

8.4.2015 10:27 On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I honor all Roma on International Roma Day.  full story

8 April: Romani people worldwide celebrate International Romani Day

8.4.2015 1:00, (ROMEA) International Romani Day is celebrated annually by Romani people worldwide on 8 April. On this day, Romani people commemorate the historic First World Romani Congress, organized by Comité International Rom (CIR) in Orpington, England in 1971.  full story

Czech Platform for Social Housing chair: Roma in residential hotels need a chance at a dignified life

8.4.2015 0:04 "If you get hit by a car, the emergency medical technicians don't ask you if you looked both ways before you crossed the street. Losing housing is a similar catastrophe. It is in everyone's interest for homelessness not to become an intractable fate, but the briefest possible episode in someone's life," says Štěpán Ripka, chair of the Platform for Social Housing in the Czech Republic; news server Romea.cz interviewed him about the progress on a social housing law.  full story

Romani police officer: Roma are both perpetrators and victims of modern-day slavery

7.4.2015 21:55 Petr Torák is a Romani police officer originally from the Czech Republic who has worked for almost 10 years in England investigating human trafficking. At the end of March he attended a conference in Prague on the topic of "modern-day slavery" along with other British and Czech experts.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani residents of Tanvald oppose planned demonstration for new investigation of 2012 shooting

Prague, 7.4.2015 19:39, (ROMEA) On Saturday 11 April a demonstration will be held in the Czech town of Tanvald calling for a new investigation into the case of a Romani man who was shot to death there on New Year's Day 2012. The event is being convened by activist Andrej Lučka in collaboration the father of the murdered youth, Ladislav Tatár.  full story

Czech Platform for Social Housing approves of Government's Concept

7.4.2015 18:38 Prior to the last Czech election, the parties now governing as a coalition promised to launch a new social housing system to aid the genuinely needy - people without housing and those for whom dignified accommodation is too expensive. The parties unanimously promised to draft a social housing law, to enhance the role of municipalities in providing housing, and to invest the necessary financing into the system.  full story

ERTF: We are Roma - this is what we are

7.4.2015 10:25 We mark International Roma day by celebrating the rich Romani culture and the diverse contributions of Roma to our societies. On this day, the Roma can stand up and proudly say “We are Roma: this is what we are.”  full story

Commentary: Who is the real expert here?

7.4.2015 1:57 In an article published 27 March by the Česká škola (Czech School) website, Jiří Pilař endeavors to interpret the recently-adopted amendment to the Schools Act. Actually he does not present any arguments in his piece, but simply practices division and spite, first creating and then shoring up an antagonism between "activists" and "experts", both "groups" of his own making.  full story

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