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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

RomaReact: The European Parliament elections are approaching: Will Roma candidates succeed?

Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 13.1.2014 23:09, (ROMEA) It is not something new for a Roma origin person to run candidature in European Parliament elections and be a MEP, Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia was the first Roma ever to serve as a Member of the European Parliament, his example was followed also by Lívia Járóka or Viktória Mohácsi. As the 2014 European Parliament elections are approaching the reports about the increasing number of Roma origins candidates for MEP are increasing.  full story

Nominees for Czech ombud include Fischerová, Marvanová and Šabatová

Prague, 13.1.2014 17:40, (ROMEA) Next month the Czech lower house will vote in a new Public Defender of Rights (or ombud) and there is a big chance that a female nominee will take up the post. The candidates are said to be former dissident Anna Šabatová, who will evidently be nominated by the Czech Senate; Táňa Fischerová, whom the ANO Movement intends to negotiate support for in the lower house; and attorney Hana Marvanová, who might also be nominated by the Senate, according to news server iDNES.cz.  full story

Commentary: Czech TV talk show contributes to anti-Romani sentiment

Prague, 13.1.2014 5:28, (ROMEA) Last Thursday evening the public channel Czech Television 1 broadcast an episode of Michaela Jílková's "Máte slovo" ("You Have the Floor") program on the topic of "Tightening up Welfare". Romani activist Ivana Mariposa Čonková was in the studio audience and protested against the management of the program, whom she believes have grossly violated the public broadcasting statutes of Czech Television and intensified anti-Romani sentiment in the country.  full story

Der Spiegel: EU incapable of aiding its Romani citizens

Berlin, Germany, 10.1.2014 2:25, (ROMEA) An estimated 12 million Romani people live in Europe. They have been there for a thousand years and have been excluded from society and persecuted as "gypsies" there for centuries.  full story

Germany: Merkel's first government crisis is over CSU's anti-immigrant rhetoric

Prague, 10.1.2014 1:05, (ROMEA) Germany will be reviewing options for tightening its rules governing the provision of unemployment benefits and welfare. German television station ARD reported on Wednesday, 8 January that the government has decided it will create a special commission to review the matter.  full story

Slovakia: Politicians can't avoid Fascist rioter turned provincial governor

Bratislava, Slovakia, 10.1.2014 0:34, (ROMEA) High-level politicians in Slovakia are grappling with the unpleasant problem of how to manage their relationships with Marian Kotleba, who was elected provincial governor of the Banská Bystrica Region last November. While they previously labeled the leader of Slovakia's radical right an extremist and a rioter, they are now trying to figure out how to handle unavoidable future moments of contact with him.  full story