News

Czech PM at Terezín: It is important to stand up to anti-Semitism

Terezín (Litoměřice district), 19.5.2014 3:33, (ROMEA) Jaroslav Vodička, the chair of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union, said today that German President Joachim Gauch's recent visit to the former Jewish ghetto at Terezín was a courageous step and a gesture of partnership. Hundreds of people remembered the victims of Nazism during WWII today at a commemoration ceremony in Terezín.  full story

Czech Republic: Protest against pig farm on Roma Holocaust site blocks highway

Lety u Písku, 17.5.2014 20:08, (ROMEA) For five days, activists have been blockading access to the pig farm at Lety by Písek. They object to the fact that the farm is standing on the site of a former forced labor camp for Romani people.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: The Czech media have neither the desire nor the time for the truth

Prague, 17.5.2014 0:09, (ROMEA) Jarmila Balážová has been working as the press spokesperson for the Czech Human Rights Minister since March. Prior to that she was a correspondent for Czech Radio 6 who moderated the programs "Focus on Human Rights" (Zaostřeno na lidská práva), "Studio STOP", "Dissuasion" (Rozmluvy), "Focus on Youth" (Zaostřeno na mladé) and "Science Talk" (Hovory o vědě).  full story

Analysis: Czech parties defaming Roma during EP campaign

Prague, 16.5.2014 21:52, (ROMEA) The Parliament of the European Union definitely has a lot to look forward to from the Czech Republic this year. Famous antigypsyists and con artists who believe we have forgotten about their past crimes are planning to get to Brussels by playing the anti-Roma card.  full story

Czech director's "The Way Out" brilliantly captures ghetto life

Krupka/Ostrava/Prague, 16.5.2014 0:19, (ROMEA) Petr Václav's film "Cesta ven" ("The Way Out"), which is heading to the Cannes Film Festival, is more than a success. Unlike the author of the recent naive, romanticized "documentary" film called "Gadjo", Václav knows his subject - he knows how people in the ghettos live, what bothers them, and what their problems are.  full story

Czech Republic: 16th annual Khamoro Festival of Roma culture returns to Prague

Prague, 15.5.2014 21:19, (ROMEA) Khamoro, the Czech Republic's most important Romani festival, will be bringing sunshine to Prague once more at the end of May. The Czech capital will host the festival from 25 May - 31 May for the 16th year in a row.  full story

Czech Republic: 84 % say coexistence between Roma and others is "bad"

Prague, 15.5.2014 20:15, (ROMEA) The Center for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM) reports that coexistence between Romani people and others living in the Czech Republic is perceived by the vast majority of the public as problematic. In a recent survey, 45 % said coexistence with Roma is "bad", while 39 % described it as "very bad".  full story

Czech inter-ministerial group to help regions with social tensions

Ústí nad Labem, 15.5.2014 19:25, (ROMEA) An inter-ministerial group comprised of representatives of several ministries, municipalities and regional authorities will be convened to solve the problems of regions experiencing social tensions. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) announced the group yesterday to journalists at the conclusion of his visit to the Ústí Region.  full story

Czech town, home to Romani arson victims, bans neo-Nazi march there

Budišov, 15.5.2014 18:50, (ROMEA) The town of Budišov nad Budišovkou has banned a march by neo-Nazis planned for 7 June. Petr Born, chair of the ultra-right DSSS in Nový Jičín (who is, paradoxically, an owner of Romani-occupied residential hotels in Ostrava) and Pavel Matějný, a member of the "Czech Lions" association and convener of many past anti-Romani neo-Nazi demonstrations, want to hold the march in response to the recent death of a youth there.  full story

UK: Czech priest, awarded Templeton Prize, says chauvinism is a danger to Europe

London, 15.5.2014 18:11, (ROMEA) The Czech Catholic priest Tomáš Halík has been awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize in London for extraordinary service to enhancing the spiritual aspect of life. The foundation established to honor the late British banker and philanthropist John Templeton emphasized that it is honoring Halík for his advocacy for cultural and religious freedom after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968.  full story

Czech court says magazine can't use nickname for politician

Prague, 15.5.2014 17:18, (ROMEA) Reflex.cz reports that a court has ruled that neither the hard copy version nor the website of Reflex magazine may call Czech MP Tomio Okamura, the head of the Úsvit ("Dawn of Direct Democracy") party, by the nickname "Pitomio" [a pun on the word "pitomec", which means "knucklehead"]. The magazine has apologized to Okamura online for distorting his name, but only for doing so in an article published after the verdict was handed down.  full story

Research shows as much as 25 % of the world advocates anti-Semitism

New York City, 15.5.2014 1:04, (ROMEA) Global research conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows that one quarter of the world's population evidently advocates anti-Semitism. In the Czech Republic, 13 % of the population is reportedly anti-Semitic.  full story

Czech film director tells EdMin the country's children's institutions are "hell"

Paris/Prague, 14.5.2014 20:53, (ROMEA) This past March the Czech media reported on an incident that occurred at the Králíky juvenile reformatory in Ústí nad Orlicí. Allegedly a 14-year-old boy stabbed a staff member in the neck with a screwdriver and then, together with a 15-year-old inmate, kicked around another staffer who came to his aid.  full story

Hungary: Ex-Interior Minister convicted of death of dozens of anti-communist fighters

Budapest, 14.5.2014 18:14, (ROMEA) Béla Biszku (age 92), the former Hungarian Interior Minister during communism, has been convicted of war crimes. A court in Hungary today sentenced him to five and a half years in prison.  full story

Czech activist donates his Third Resistance compensation to Roma

Prague, 14.5.2014 17:14, (ROMEA) Stanislav Penc has refused to attend an award ceremony honoring those who participated in the Third Resistance, where he would have received an award from Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický. Penc said he believes advocates of the communist regime remain in high office today and the perpetrators of injustice from that time have not yet been punished.  full story

Roma in the Czech Republic need not apply

Prague, 14.5.2014 0:14, (ROMEA) The ban against discrimination is based on a principle fundamental to every democratic state, that of the equality of all people, which is a basic condition for the existence of justice. Even today, in the 21st century, many Romani people in the Czech Republic encounter explicit violations of this principle when seeking employment, access to services, and when looking for housing that is not a residential hotel.  full story

Czech ministers visit excluded localities in Šluknov area

Šluknov (Děčín district), 13.5.2014 23:21, (ROMEA) Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, and Czech Labor Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová (all Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) visited the socially excluded localities in the Šluknov area (Děčín district) yesterday. The ministers were primarily interested in the conditions in which local people live and the problems of municipalities there.  full story

Czech Republic: Activists blockading pig farm at Lety where WWII-era camp for Roma once stood

Lety u Písku, 13.5.2014 19:20, (ROMEA) In Lety by Písek today, activists began a blockade of the pig farm standing on the site of what once was a forced labor camp for Romani people. The surviving relatives of the victims of the Romani Holocaust have long been calling for the pig farm to be removed and its location has also been criticized by the UN.  full story

Czech Government still can't find money to remove pig farm from Romani Holocaust site

Lety u Písku, 10.5.2014 20:05, (ROMEA) Money to get rid of the pig farm standing on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety in the Písek district of the Czech Republic is not likely to be provided by the government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. For years, the surviving relatives of the victims of the Romani Holocaust have been calling in vain for the farm to go, as have the Council of Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, and various NGOs.  full story

Czech politicians, survivors honor memory of victims of Communism

Prague, 10.5.2014 18:47, (ROMEA) Politicians and survivors honored the memory of the victims of the Communist regime at a cemetery in the Motol quarter of Prague today. Those attending called on people not to forget the harms caused by the totalitarian era.  full story