News

Greece: Police intensively searching for murderers of right-wing extremists

Athens, Greece, 6.11.2013 23:35, (ROMEA) The Greek Police are intensively searching for whoever it was that shot two members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party to death last Friday in Athens. Two people were killed and a third seriously injured in the drive-by shooting.  full story

Czech tabloid seizes on critique of tv show view of Roma to stir up trouble

Prague, 6.11.2013 21:51, (ROMEA) Director Filip Renč has allegedly begun responding with vulgar abuse to the rising criticism of his depictions of Romani people in the television serial "Sanitka 2" as completely racist and unrealistic. Attorney Klára Samková referred to Renč as an "idiot" in a post to her Facebook profile discussing the serial, and according to the editor of a Czech tabloid, Renč then called Samková a "gypsy cow".  full story

Daily Mail criticizes Romani living conditions in Slovakia

Košice, Slovakia, 6.11.2013 17:40, (ROMEA) The British newspaper The Daily Mail has sharply criticized the living conditions of Romani people in Slovakia's second-largest city, Košice, which was also chosen by the EU to be this year's "European Capital of Culture". The paper reports that the town won more than GBP 51 million worth of grants as a result of the designation and asks why "Romani children are still living in such horrible squalor" there. (For the original article, see (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486333/Kosice-won-51million-grants-named-Europes-Capital-Culture--thousands-Roma-children-living-slums.html).  full story

Four Czech citizens imprisoned for welfare fraud in Britain

London, 6.11.2013 17:18, (ROMEA) The Nottingham Post has reported in its online edition that a court in that northern English town sentenced four members of a family from the Czech Republic yesterday to between two and five years in prison for systematically abusing the British welfare system and defrauding it of GBP 750 000. One of the family members received a suspended sentence.  full story

Czech director defends his depiction of Romani people in tv serial

Prague, 6.11.2013 0:17, (ROMEA) Lukáš Senft, a documentary filmmaker and student at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague has written an open letter to the creators of the television serial "Sanitka 2", screenwriter Ivan Hubač and director Filip Renč. In his letter, which was also published by news server Romea.cz, Senft takes the serial's creators to task for lying about Romani people and depicting them as a bloodthirsty, dangerous, foreign and incomprehensible minority.  full story

The Romanes language celebrates its international day today

Prague, 5.11.2013 22:53, (ROMEA) Aspirated sounds and an eighth additional case - those are just some of the differences between the Czech and Romanes languages. As part of the International Day of the Romani Language, we reflect on these differences today.  full story

Austrian court convicts seven men of neo-Nazi activity

Vienna, Austria, 5.11.2013 17:31, (ROMEA) An Austrian court convicted seven men of neo-Nazi activity today, ranging from an 18-month suspended sentence to six years in prison without parole. The Austrian Press Agency reports that the trial was accompanied by strict security measures.  full story

Open letter to the writers of the Czech television serial "Sanitka 2"

Prague, 5.11.2013 17:04, (ROMEA) Mr Hubač, Mr Renč,  full story

Czech activist and journalist Emil Szirmai has passed away

Prague, 5.11.2013 16:23, (ROMEA) Emil Szirmai has passed away. Many people knew him better than I did. His colleagues and friends of many years can write about what he worked on his whole life, what his interests were. For my part I can say that Emil was intensively involved, for more than 10 years, in questions of equality and justice for national minorities. In connection with Romani people he developed and worked on activities both in nonprofit organizations and in state institutions that were sometimes just amazing.  full story

Roma evictions right in the heart of the European capital

Brussels, 5.11.2013 11:01, (ROMEA) More than 220 people, including 90 children, will be doomed to live in the street after they were ordered on Thursday, 31 October to leave the building where they used to reside for more than four years. After many days of pressure and not knowing, the house is (on Monday 4, November) full of the police ready for the eviction. The police turn up 5:45 this morning!  full story

Czech Roma Affairs Coordinator: We have to get ghetto residents into the labor market

Kolín, 5.11.2013 0:12, (ROMEA) Cyril Koky works as the Coordinator for Romani Affairs at the Central Bohemian Regional Authority. He graduated from the Military High School in Liptovský Mikuláš, Czechoslovakia and was reassigned from serving in Slovakia to the Bohemian town of Kolín, where he served for 10 years.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry wants residential hotels as fixture of housing policy

Prague, 4.11.2013 22:42, (ROMEA) The Czech Government has been discussing a document from the Interior Ministry proposing that police specialists be hired to work in the country's ghettos. The officers involved would spend as much as half of their work hours patrolling such areas.  full story

Czech Anti-Fascist Action writes open letter to the ultra-right

Prague, 2.11.2013 19:04, (ROMEA) On 25 October, the website for Anti-Fascist Action in the Czech Republic, Antifa.cz, reported that the group sent an open letter in the run-up to the recent parliamentary elections to members of the ultra-right DSSS party as part of Anti-Fascist Action's ongoing campaign against antigypsyism. News server Romea.cz presents the introduction to the open letter from the website below, as well as the letter itself in full translation.  full story

A conversation between Romani activist Čeněk Růžička and Czech Senator Alena Gajdůšková

Prague, 2.11.2013 0:01, (Romano vod'i) The monthly Romano voďi publishes a regular column entitled "Two Points of View". Two public figures, one non-Romani and one Romani, who are members of the same profession or who work in the same field are invited to ask one another questions.  full story

Czech Republic: Locals confirm conditions in Obrnice have improved

Obrnice, 1.11.2013 16:49, (ROMEA) Several residents of the town of Obrnice (Most district) are confirming that coexistence between the majority society and Romani people has improved over the past few years. Mayor of Obrnice Drahomíra Miklošová received an award from the Council of Europe on Wednesday for the town's results in Romani integration.  full story

EUobserver.com: Neo-Nazis mobilise against minorities in Czech Republic

Prague, 1.11.2013 10:21, (ROMEA) Ultra-right parties and their neo-Nazi supporters have unleashed an unprecedented level of coordinated anti-Roma demonstrations throughout the Czech Republic this year, aiming to tip the balance at the polls and increase their access to power in the country’s upcoming elections.  full story

Image of Roma in the Czech media during 2013

Prague, 1.11.2013 1:19, (ROMEA) A second round table for journalists organized by the ROMEA association was held in Prague on 31 October. Ivan Vodochodský, an analyst with the Newton Média company, and representatives of ROMEA presented their joint analysis, entitled "Stereotypes in the Media Image of Roma during 2013" (Stereotypy mediálního obrazu Romů v roce 2013 - available in Czech only at http://www.mediainfo.cz/clanky/romove-v-neklidne-dobe/).  full story

Ivanka Mariposa Čonková: Victory over racism, or, How the neo-Nazis lost face in Ostrava

Ostrava, 31.10.2013 19:21, (ROMEA) The 28th of October this year happened in a spirit similar to that of 24 August, when several towns in the Czech Republic simultaneously faced open displays of antigypsyism, neo-Nazism and racism in the form of marches that transformed into attempted pogroms against Romani people. This past Monday, the towns concerned were České Budějovice, Ostrava, and Plzeň.  full story

Czech town of Obrnice receives award in Strasbourg for Romani integration projects

Strasbourg, France, 31.10.2013 17:48, (ROMEA) The Mayor of Obrnice, Drahomíra Miklošová, has been awarded a prize in Strasbourg. The award is given by the Council of Europe as part of its "Dosta!" ("Enough!") campaign for an innovative municipal project that either combats discrimination against Romani people, raises awareness about Romani culture and rights, or supports Romani integration (see http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/dosta_en.asp).  full story

Greece will definitely return Romani girl to Bulgaria

Bulgaria/Greece, 31.10.2013 16:30, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz reports that Greek authorities will be returning the little blonde girl named Maria, who was recently discovered living with a Romani family in the town of Farsala there, to her biological parents' country, Bulgaria. DNA analyses have proven she is the daughter of another Romani couple there, Atanas and Sasha Rusev.  full story