News

Human Rights Watch: Violations rising, tolerance declining in EU

Berlin, Germany, 21.1.2014 21:00, (ROMEA) Tolerance is declining in the European Union and cases of human rights violations are more frequent. Those are the conclusions of the report on the year 2013 by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which was just presented in Berlin.  full story

Czech suspect says Romani victim must have stabbed himself to death

Ústí nad Labem, 21.1.2014 0:09, (ROMEA) The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem began hearing testimony on 20 January 2014 in the case of Stanislav Sýkora, who faces charges of racially motivated grievous bodily harm. Sýkora has testified that he is not guilty and that he believes the Romani victim caused his own injuries, of which he later died.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: New ministers could change Czech perceptions of gender and minorities

Prague, 20.1.2014 23:12, (ROMEA) We finally have the names of the cabinet to be led by incoming Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. This means the strange double-government situation in this country will soon be over, one that has made it very difficult for the average citizen and the public in general, who directly elected a President and deputies to the lower house, to figure out who is basically doing what, especially what the outgoing, Zeman-appointed cabinet has abolished, approved, negotiated or reallocated.  full story

Czech town tries to prevent panic and anti-Romani demonstrations

Příbram, 20.1.2014 22:07, (ROMEA) Last Friday a meeting was organized by the town of Příbram which aimed to respond to a recent petition circulating there called "For a Safe Příbram" which was authored by local resident Lenka Synková and has been signed by several hundred people. When asked why she wrote the petition, Synková said:  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Help, not populism, for the socially excluded

Prague, 20.1.2014 19:28, (ROMEA) Jiří Dienstbier is slated to become the next Czech Human Rights Minister. He says he would like to change the fact that same-sex couples are discriminated against in the Czech Republic.  full story

Slovakia: Villages burned by Nazis during WWII elect right-wing extremist today

Bratislava, Slovakia, 20.1.2014 0:42, (ROMEA) In the Central Slovakian villages of Kľak and Ostrý Grúň, whose inhabitants were massacred during the Second World War, most people are now voting for right-wing extremist Marián Kotleba. The online edition of the Slovak newspaper Sme notes this fact in its commemoration of the massacre, which took place 69 years ago.  full story

Czech Republic: Secret neo-Nazi concert in Prague cancelled

Prague, 19.1.2014 20:41, (ROMEA) The organizer of yesterday's secret concert by neo-Nazi bands Summer Heroes and Violence Station at Prague's Na Slamníku restaurant ultimately cancelled the event before it even began. Police expected approximately 100 people to attend, but only 50 showed up.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazi bands play secret concert in Prague

Prague, 19.1.2014 0:33, (ROMEA) The Antifa.cz website reports that the neo-Nazi bands Summer Heroes and Violence Station are scheduled to perform this evening in a secret concert at the Na Slamníku restaurant in Prague. The choice of venue is shocking, as the pub has previously been understood as a place for punk or rock music concerts that share a certain esprit du corps with the underground music era during communism, not with neo-Nazism.  full story

Czech director accused of xenophobia threatens critic with violence

Prague, 17.1.2014 23:14, (ROMEA) News server iHNED.cz reports that Czech Radio will be broadcasting a segment of its "Zaostřeno" ("In Focus") program this Saturday in which director Filip Renč tells Kamil Fila, a film critic with the RESPEKT weekly, that he'd like to "break his jaw". Renč did not like Fila's critique of the way Renč depicts foreigners in the television serial "Sanitka 2" ("Ambulance 2").  full story

Candidate for Czech ombud moderates his anti-Romani stance

Prague, 17.1.2014 22:18, (ROMEA) Social Democrat Stanislav Křeček, who has been proposed by Czech President Miloš Zeman as a candidate for the post of Public Defender of Rights (ombud), is now attempting to moderate anti-Romani statements he published last August on his Facebook profile. "I could have held back," he has told news server Lidovky.cz.  full story

Czech Labor Minister will be Michaela Marksová Tominová

Prague, 17.1.2014 18:06, (ROMEA) The next Minister of Labor and Social Affairs is probably going to be Michaela Marksová Tominová, who until now has been the spokesperson for the Czech Social Democratic Party's (ČSSD) shadow government on issues of human rights and the family. Bohuslav Sobotka, the incoming premier and ČSSD head, has announced that he has decided to appoint her to his government.  full story

Markus Pape: Czech Republic's most serious racial attack of 2013 on trial

Teplice / Ústí nad Labem , 17.1.2014 0:52, (ROMEA) Next Monday the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem will review the most serious case of racially motivated violence to have occurred in 2013. During the celebrations around the opening of the spa in the town of Teplice, a non-Romani man working at an outdoor sausage stand seriously injured several Romani youths with a knife before stabbing a random Romani passer-by to death directly in front of the Teplice town hall.  full story

Commentary: Czech trial of police president shows state attorney not independent

Prague, 16.1.2014 23:56, (ROMEA) The recent trial of Czech Police President Petr Lessy unfortunately has once again demonstrated the inability of the state attorney to proceed independently. I personally consider Lessy to be incompetent and to bear his share of the blame for the very poor reputation of the police, who constantly face criticism from human rights activists; despite this, I cannot agree with his being convicted without evidence.  full story

Russia criticizes Czech Republic over Roma, EU over human rights

16.1.2014 22:10, (ROMEA) The Russian Foreign Ministry says it is disturbed by the state of human rights in the European Union, with Russian diplomats saying there are "serious flaws" in that area. The ministry published a report on the issue on Tuesday which has been reviewed by the international and the Russian media.  full story

Czech Republic: Trials continue in Duchcov scandals

Duchcov, 15.1.2014 1:55, (ROMEA) Scandal #1: Revenge attack against those organizing anti-Romani demonstrations  full story

Commentary: In defense of Ivana Čonková

Ústí nad Labem, 15.1.2014 0:48, (ROMEA) I disagree with most of the opinions expressed in the piece entitled "Commentary: Some Romani activists are spreading anti-Romani sentiment", which has recently been published on Romea.cz. In that article the author attacks in an ugly, sometimes chauvinist, and vulgar way an activist from the Konexe association, my friend Ivana Mariposa Čonková.  full story

Commentary: Some Romani activists are spreading anti-Romani sentiment

Prague, 14.1.2014 23:40, (ROMEA) Most of the readers of Romea.cz have probably watched the most recent episode of the Czech Television discussion program "Máte slovo“ ("You Have the Floor"), which is presented by Michaela Jílková. I have to admit that during that broadcast I found myself wondering whether I was really watching a Czech Television program at all.  full story

Commentary: Romani guests on Czech TV show aren't helping their image

Prague, 14.1.2014 22:21, (ROMEA) Michaela Jílková, a Czech Television "moderator", has once again succeeded in pulling off a tour de force. On her tabloid talk show "Máte slovo" ("You Have the Floor"), through which guests sometimes spread their racist and xenophobic attitudes, she has once again incited the "decent" and the "inadaptables" (her words) against one another.  full story

Czech Helsinki Committee designs law to compensate illegally sterilized people

Prague, 14.1.2014 17:18, (ROMEA) The Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor - ČHV) has completed a bill to use as a basis for compensating the victims of illegally-performed sterilizations. The NGO is now submitting the draft legislation to the political parties seated in the Czech Parliament as well as to the justice minister and is calling on them both to see through an adequate resolution to the issue of illegal sterilizations as soon as possible.  full story

Roma Activist Musician Assaulted in Serbia

Belgrade, 13.1.2014 23:43, (ROMEA) Olah Vince, a Roma activist and musician, said that he was attacked and beaten up by six unknown men as he was walking with his wife at Christmas outside their house in the Telep quarter in the northern city of Novi Sad.  full story