News

Czech MP calls for harassment of Muslims

Prague, 6.1.2015 20:30, (ROMEA) Czech MP Tomio Okamura, the head of the "Dawn of Direct Democracy" (Úsvit) movement, has used online social networking to urge the public to harass Muslims in the country - for example, by "taking pigs for walks to relieve themselves" near mosques. Okamura told news server iDNES.cz that his call was not an incitement to intolerance and claimed to have consulted the text with lawyers before posting it.  full story

Czech media outlet reprints old, misleading information about Roma in UK

Prague, 6.1.2015 19:38, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz has published an article with the headline "French town doesn't want to bury Romani child who didn't pay taxes" that includes information more than a year old about the situation in the suburb of Sheffield in England. As in its previous reporting, the news server's current reporting is silent as to the results of a police investigation into the matter, which means and the information it has now (re)published is extremely misleading.  full story

France: Immigrant Romani infant buried near Paris after being refused burial elsewhere

Wissous, France, 6.1.2015 0:07, (ROMEA) In the community of Wissous near Paris a Romani infant was buried Monday during a ceremony attended by hundreds of people. The nearby small town of Champlan had previously refused her burial in their cemetery.  full story

Czech SocDems get new leadership in region to address local coalition with extremists

Teplice, 5.1.2015 21:27, (ROMEA) The new chair of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) in the Ústí Region is the Vice-Mayor of Štětí (Litoměřice district), Miroslav Andrt. He is replacing Radek Scherfer of Chomutov, who led the party in the region for the last two years.  full story

Slovak media depict Roma stereotypically and often anonymously

Bratislava, Slovakia, 3.1.2015 1:14, (ROMEA) They are dependent on state aid, impoverished, and uneducated, they commit crime more often than members of the majority part of society, and they have many children. That is what Romani people in Slovakia often look like through the eyes of the majority, and several media outlets are contributing to this stereotypical image  full story

Former Czech Foreign Minister does not believe his father was involved with the Lety camp

Prague, 2.1.2015 23:50, (ROMEA) Former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg does not believe his father was involved at all in the establishment of the WWII-era camp at Lety by Písek. Radio Wave reports that he made the statement in response to claims by Paul Polansky that Schwarzenberg's father needed a cheap labor force in 1939 to clean up after a large blizzard and asked authorities to build a labor camp for that purpose.  full story

2015 issues for Romea.cz: "Practical schools" and social housing

Prague, 2.1.2015 22:55, (ROMEA) The new year in the Czech Republic has begun with the ongoing design of the social housing law and a controversial amendment to welfare policy that will have hard-to-predict consequences. The amendment is intended to restrict "trafficking in poverty" by residential hotels, but it is not clear whether thought has been given to where those now living in such facilities might eventually end up as a result of the changes.  full story

Roma wanted: Apply for unique cultural management training – Khamoro Shares its Experience

Prague, 2.1.2015 20:37, (ROMEA) The NGO Slovo 21, based in the Czech Republic, has issued the following press release:
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Czech media analysis: News about Roma makes money, but reporting is not objective

Prague, 2.1.2015 19:48, (ROMEA) As part of a project called "Reducing discrimination and racism by altering the media depiction of Romani people", supported by a grant from Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants, the ROMEA organization has published an introductory analysis of the depiction of Romani people in the Czech media in recent years. The aim of the project is to prevent society from shifting towards extremism and a radicalization of its relationship toward Romani people by doing our best to influence and eventually also modify how the media reports about Romani people.  full story

Czech Police shelve case of death threats against Roma

Děčín, 30.12.2014 21:41, (ROMEA) Drahomír Radek Horváth, a Romani social services staffer for a human rights organization, was in a Děčín restaurant with friends at the end of November when they became the target of vulgar racist abuse and death threats. Horváth did not allow himself to be provoked and reported the entire incident to police.  full story

Parallel worlds: The life of Romani people in Norway

Prague, 29.12.2014 21:59, (ROMEA) "There probably does not exist any other group against which Norwegians harbor more prejudice," says Balder Hasvoll, the Romani Minority Adviser to the Norwegian capital of Oslo. News server Romea.cz is interviewing him in Czech, as he has both studied and worked in the Czech Republic.  full story

Netherlands: Wilders to be prosecuted for anti-Moroccan remarks

The Hague, 29.12.2014 20:12, (ROMEA) Wire services have reported that the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office has decided to prosecute Geert Wilders, an anti-Muslim MP, for inciting hatred through remarks he made about Moroccan immigrants. The head of the ultra-right Party for Freedom (PVV), which is seated in Parliament and leads in local public opinion polls, will be charged for racially insulting a group and inciting discrimination and hatred, according to a statement from the prosecutor.  full story

Bothered by how the media report on Romani people? ROMEA wants to hear from you

Prague, 29.12.2014 5:41, (ROMEA) "One of the main roles in society's shift toward extremism and radicalization in relation to Romani people is played by the media," says Zdeněk Ryšavý, director of ROMEA, o.p.s. "Ever more frequently, in media of all kinds, we are encountering journalists who report about Romani people superficially, without any knowledge, or without sufficient reflection on the context of a story."  full story

Czech court says assault was not racially motivated

Prague, 29.12.2014 4:20, (ROMEA) At the start of December the trial of two non-Romani men who assaulted a Romani man in July 2013 in a bar in the town of Bystřice pod Hostýnem ended with a remarkable verdict. Even though 37-year-old Miroslav Vybíral was charged with the particularly serious crime of racially motivated attempted murder, for which he faced the possibility of extraordinary sentencing and a minimum of 10 years in prison, he was ultimately convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to six years.  full story

videoRomani singer sues Beyoncé, claiming she used her music without permission

Budapest/New York, 29.12.2014 2:34, (ROMEA) Agence France-Presse reports that Mónika Juhász Miczura, a Romani singer from Hungary, is suing Beyoncé because she is convinced the American superstar stole a musical motif of hers and used it in her song "Drunk in Love". According to the Romani singer, the music was used without permission.
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Czech Republic restricts payouts to traffickers in poverty running residential hotels

Prague, 29.12.2014 1:58, (ROMEA) The payment of housing supplements for accommodation in residential hotels will now be restricted by law. The supplements will be provided by the state to residential hotel operators based on the amount of space rented, not per the number of people living in a single unit.  full story

Czech bishop lunches with the homeless, Romani representatives and senior citizens in Brno

Brno, 29.12.2014 0:20, (ROMEA) Bishop Vojtěch Cikrle of Brno had lunch on 26 December with 170 homeless people, pensioners, and representatives of the Romani community. The Christmas event was convened by the Sant Egidio church community in the parish of the Church of St. Jakub in central Brno.  full story

Commentary: Czech counter-intelligence report on anti-Romani marches is racist

Prague, 28.12.2014 0:25, (ROMEA) Evangelical parson Mikuláš Vymětal has written an open letter to the Security and Information Service (BIS) of the Czech Republic regarding its report on the anti-Romani events of 2013. "I am calling this a public letter and I believe that if you publish it, it will increase the hope that the BIS will respond proportionately. It's not much of a Christmas topic, but I view this as a way to take care of unfinished business before the year ends," he wrote to news server Romea.cz, which is publishing the letter in full translation below.  full story

Bachtaľi Karačoňa! Merry Christmas!

Praha, 24.12.2014 0:01, (ROMEA) Amare lačhe amala, organizacija ROMEA, redakcija Romano voďi, Romea.cz e ROMEA TV Tumenge vičinas but šukar Karačoňa the bachtalo nevo berš 2015. Te el maškar o manuša lačhi kedva, te tumen dikhen bare lačhe manuša the san but saste.  full story

"We aren't racists, but..." actually we are - and pretty disgusting ones

Prague, 23.12.2014 23:53, (ROMEA) An essential exhibition mapping the racism and xenophobia that persists to this day in Czech society is being ignored by the mainstream media here. This is despite the fact that the state of affairs captured by the exhibition is glaringly obvious.  full story