News

Charges against creator of Czech-Romani flag exhibit don't stick

Prague, 24.1.2015 19:54, (ROMEA) Prague City Hall has refused to uphold a fine levied by the Prague 7 Municipal Department against an exhibition of designs for a Czech-Romani flag. The decision to levy the fine has been overturned and the proceedings in the matter halted.  full story

Czech lower house supports ratification of foreigners' rights, except to vote

Prague, 23.1.2015 20:46, (ROMEA) Yesterday during the opening round of negotiations on ratifying the international Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at local level, the Czech lower house expressed support for the Government's proposed approach. Some MPs, however, urged caution regarding ratification of the treaty.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion publishes Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities

Prague, 23.1.2015 18:01, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has published a document that will be the basis of its work in towns and villages during the next EU-funded programming period. The detailed material is called the Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities  full story

Czech extremism report: Islamophobic group uses cyber-bullying

Prague, 23.1.2015 16:35, (ROMEA) The ultra-right scene in the Czech Republic has recently focused on "combating Islam". The most active group is the Czech Defense League (CZDL), represented by "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" (IvČRN) on the Facebook social networking site.  full story

Czech Republic: Experts believe schools will not open to the disadvantaged or to Romani children

Prague, 23.1.2015 3:03, (ROMEA) Czech society is divided, elitist, incapable of achieving consensus and intolerant. It is not likely that even the best-intended attempts at reforming the primary schools will succeed any time soon.  full story

Romea.cz exclusive: Romani quintuplets' family responds to critique

Milovice, 23.1.2015 1:16, (ROMEA) A recent interview with Ms Klára Vítková-Rulíková on news server Ona.Dnes.cz about the family of Romani quintuplets has sparked a wave of passionate debate on the Czech internet. Vítková-Rulíková, the founder of the Club of Twins and Higher Multiples (Klubu dvojčat a vícerčat - KDV) discussed private family matters in that interview, among other things, accused them of wasting food, and said they were incapable of establishing a functioning system of care for their children, all of which then culminated in her claim that without her direct aid, the family risked having their children taken away by the state.  full story

Czech Republic: Five charged in brawl between Romani customers and security guards in Ostrava

Ostrava, 22.1.2015 0:18, (ROMEA) Police have charged five people so far in connection with last week's serious scuffle between Romani customers and security guards at a gaming room in the Ostrava-Bělský Les neighborhood. On Tuesday a 29-year-old man was charged with rioting in relation to the incident.  full story

Czech Republic: Romea.cz asks NGOs if they still want to change the world or just raise money?

Prague, 21.1.2015 22:55, (ROMEA) Are nonprofits still able and willing to contest majority thinking and those in power? Or are they unable to risk such conflict because they might lose their grants from individual donors and state institutions?  full story

Czech Constitutional Court rejects ex-Senator's complaint against fine for racism

Brno, 21.1.2015 16:03, (ROMEA) The Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud - ÚS) has rejected a complaint from former Czech Senator Vladimír Dryml against a fine of CZK 20 000 that he must pay for verbally attacking a doctor from Yemen. The sanction was levied by the Czech Senate's Committee on Immunity, according to which Dryml's remarks were racially motivated.  full story

Czech Republic: Director of Terezín memorial against NGO honoring Romani victims separately

Terezín, 21.1.2015 0:21, (ROMEA) The Konexe association is planning to hold an event to honor the Romani victims of the Holocaust at Terezín on the same day that the official commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz will take place. Konexe is concerned that Romani victims will either not be remembered at all or will not be sufficiently remembered by the official event.  full story

Czech Republic: ROMEA helps tutor socially disadvantaged children

Kladno, 20.1.2015 21:58, (ROMEA) From September to December 2014, socially disadvantaged children received regular tutoring at the Pařížská Primary School in Kladno as part of a project called "Education for successful integration". One ambition of the project was to involve Romani college students as tutors.  full story

Czech Police charge seven people with transporting drugs from Ústí Region to Slovakia

Prague, 20.1.2015 21:27, (ROMEA) On the basis of collaboration between the Czech and Slovak Police, a total of 15 perpetrators were arrested at the end of 2014 and start of 2015 on the territory of each state through two separate operations targeting the extensive, illegally organized international trade in methamphetamine. The National Anti-Drug Headquarters (Národní protidrogová centrála - NPC) has charged seven people with responsibility for this alleged criminal drug activity, including the export of marijuana and methamphetamine through several courier routes from the Ústí Region to eastern Slovakia.  full story

Czech MP didn't see neo-Nazis at anti-Islamic demo, but Romea.cz did!

Prague, 20.1.2015 20:01, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that Czech MP Jana Černochová (Civic Democratic Party - ODS) is defending her participation at a demonstration at Prague Castle convened by a group called "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" by saying she didn't see any Nazis demonstrating with them. Reporters with news server Romea.cz, however, saw Vlastimil Pechanec with two friends at the demo; Pechanec was sentenced in 2003 to 17 years in prison for a racially motivated murder in the town of Svitavy.  full story

Commentary: Disabled children don't have to sit in the corner

Prague, 19.1.2015 18:05, (ROMEA) The recent remarks by Czech President Miloš Zeman about inclusion have sparked a stormy discussion here. "I am not an advocate of the opinion that children who are handicapped in a certain way should be placed into classrooms with non-handicapped pupils, because that is unfortunate for both," the President said at the Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí as part of his visit to the Pardubice Region  full story

Czech Republic: Demonstration at Terezín will demand Romani victims of Holocaust be honored

Terezín, 19.1.2015 16:35, (ROMEA) During the commemorative ceremony on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January, a demonstration demanding that Romani victims of the Holocaust be honored will take place at Terezín. The protest is being convened by the Konexe association, which among other things has long fought to see the pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma at Lety by Písek be removed  full story

Germany: Police ban assembly in Dresden today due to threat of terrorism

Dresden, 19.1.2015 15:47, (ROMEA) Yesterday police in Germany banned all outdoor assemblies planned for today in Dresden due to the threat of a terrorist attack. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that Monday's demonstration by the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) had already been canceled by the movement itself because Islamists had reportedly threatened to assassinate Lutz Bachmann, the organizer of the marches that have been taking place weekly there since mid-October.  full story

France: 42 % oppose publishing caricatures of Mohammed

Paris, 18.1.2015 23:40, (ROMEA) More than two-fifths of people in France (42 %) believe the press should avoid publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed and half agree with restricting freedom
of speech online. The French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche published the results of a survey it conducted on the issue today.  full story

France: Harsh crackdown against anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate speech, comedian arrested

Paris, 18.1.2015 23:14, (ROMEA) Last Wednesday, police in Paris arrested the controversial French humorist and political polemicist Dieudonné on suspicions of supporting terrorism in connection with the recent assassinations committed by Islamist radicals there. The Associated Press reported that as of 15 January, the office of the Public Prosecutor in Paris had arrested 54 people on charges of defending or glorifying terrorism.  full story

Czech film critics nominate film about Roma for prize

Prague, 18.1.2015 22:06, (ROMEA) Six nominations for the Czech Film Critics AWard, which will be handed out for the fifth time on 24 January at Prague's Archa Theater, have been garnered by director Petr Václav's film "The Way Out" (Cesta ven). Jiří Mádl's debut "To See the Sea" (Pojedeme k moři) received five nominations and Andrea Sedláčková's "Fair Play" received four.  full story

Commentary: Czech President's remarks supported discrimination against Romani children

Prague, 17.1.2015 23:28, (ROMEA) "Handicapped children should not attend classes together with non-handicapped children" - that is approximately what Czech President Miloš Zeman said last Wednesday during a visit to a Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí. His words have sparked a firestorm of criticism from experts and politicians.  full story