News

Czech NGO launches ad campaign about anti-Roma prejudice

Brno, 13.9.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) Starting on 9 September, people traveling by public transportation in the Czech city of Brno have been able to see 800 posters from an ongoing campaign by the Brno-based organization IQ Roma servis. The posters describe situations where Roma are working and want to work, but are blocked by the prejudices that give all Roma a bad reputation.  full story

Czech Gov't Council on Nat'l Minorities retracts 2012 report over claims of "Russian fifth column"

Prague, 13.9.2013 1:37, (ROMEA) The Czech News Agency reports that the cabinet has re-approved a report by the Government Council on National Minorities about the situation for national minorities in the Czech Republic in 2012. The report was first taken up and approved in mid-August, but was then retracted over information it contained about the Russian minority.  full story

Czech anti-racist activist Barbora Antonová: Politicians won't condemn racist violence

Brno, 12.9.2013 21:13, (ROMEA) A Brno-based initiative of people opposed to right-wing extremism has called on influential personalities and politicians to clearly express their positions on the current wave of anti-Roma sentiment in the Czech Republic. The initiative is publishing those opinions on the "Nic než názor" (Nothing but Opinion) website, the name of which in Czech is a parody of the right-wing extremist slogan "Nic než národ" ("Nothing but the nation").  full story

Czech Journalists' Syndicate says news outlet broke the law on spreading racial hatred

Prague/Prostějov, 12.9.2013 18:36, (ROMEA) The governing body of the Journalists' Syndicate in the Czech Republic (Syndikát novinářů ČR) has passed a resolution declaring that an article recently published in the Prostějovský Večerník (Prostějov Evening News) entitled "Gypsy attacks are multiplying!" ("Cikánské útoky se množí!") not only contravenes the Syndicate's code of ethics but violates the law. News server Romea.cz was the first to report on the article and the overall behavior of the Prostějovský Večerník editors (see http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/analysis-czech-news-outlet-misleads-readers-by-mastering-photoshop).  full story

Interior Ministry not registering "Czech Lions", by law they are an "unpermitted association"

Prague, 11.9.2013 18:31, (ROMEA) The Czech Interior Ministry has refused to register the "Czech Lions" (Čeští lvi) association. "The articles of incorporation of this association do not comply with the Law on Associations," Břetislav Oliva of the ministry's Department of Press and Public Relations told news server Romea.cz.  full story

Czech Helsinki Committee: Neo-Nazi, ultra-conservative and fascististic fighters gear up for elections

Prague, 11.9.2013 16:49, (ROMEA) The Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor - ČHV), which monitors adherence to human rights in the Czech Republic, has published its 19th Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic. The ČHV is the only organization in the Czech Republic to publish this report regularly since 1994. The complete "Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic for 2012" (Zpráva o stavu lidských práv v České republice za rok 2012) is available online in Czech only at http://helcom.cz/ke-stazeni/zpravy-o-stavu-lidskych-prav-v-cr/.  full story

Leading Czech right-wing extremist acquitted for lack of evidence

Most, 11.9.2013 15:29, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reported last week that right-wing extremist Lucie Šlégrová, one of the organizers of an attempted pogrom in 2008 on Romani people living at the Janov housing estate in the Czech town of Litvínov, has won a complicated, lengthy trial at the court of first instance in Most. Šlégrová, who was once an influential member of the neo-Nazi Workers' Party (Dělnická strana - DS), which has since been dissolved by court order, faced charges of promoting German Nazism, which is banned.  full story

Czech anti-racist activist Míra Brož: Pogroms with Romani deaths, or a Romani Malcolm X, may be the future

Ústí nad Labem, 10.9.2013 19:55, (ROMEA) In this interview with the pro-Romani activist Míra Brož of the Konexe civic association, we discuss the current situation among activists, the state of civil society, the role of nonprofit organizations, and the dangers flowing from both right-wing extremism and radicalization inside Romani communities in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Chief Rabbi: Racist prejudice in communities who have themselves been targeted by racism is especially damnable

Prague, 9.9.2013 23:45, (ROMEA) The Jewish people are celebrating the arrival of New Year 5774 and the subsequent holiday of Yom Kippur. Here in the Czech Republic, the start of the new year is accompanied by a rising wave of anti-Roma demonstrations organized by neo-Nazis and participated in by ordinary people.  full story

Commentary: Neo-Nazis don't belong in Kraslice, they just want money and violence

Kraslice, 7.9.2013 0:00, (ROMEA) Tomorrow a hate march will be held in the town of Kraslice in the Karlovy Vary region. Under the pretext of an election rally, the march is being convened by the neo-Nazi DSSS party, led by Tomáš Vandas.  full story

Czech state prosecutor objects to release of Romani people charged with Duchcov attack, they remain in custody

Duchcov, 6.9.2013 22:48, (ROMEA) The state prosecutor has filed a complaint against a recent decision to release from custody the three Romani people who assaulted a non-Romani married couple this past May in the town of Duchcov, an incident that prompted an ongoing series of anti-Roma demonstrations there. The defendants are remaining in custody for the time being.  full story

Commentary: Protection under the law applies to everyone equally, it's shameful to traffic in it

Prague, 6.9.2013 22:04, (ROMEA) When I read the news recently that representatives of a group of Roma in Ostrava had offered to turn in delinquents in exchange for better police protection against right-wing extremists, I thought it was a bad joke. It wasn't.  full story

European Commission refutes rumor that leftover Roma support funds will go to Germany

Brussels, Belgium, 6.9.2013 19:05, (ROMEA) News server EurActiv.cz reports that the European Commission has ruled out speculations by some foreign media outlets that unused money from EU funds intended to improve the living conditions of the Roma population in Bulgaria and Romania will be transferred to Germany, as reported by Deutsche Welle (DW). The alleged transfer was said to be justified by the fact that in recent years Germany has become a favorite destination for Roma people leaving the Balkans in search of a better life.  full story

Czech Police refute yet another false anti-Roma report spread by Duchcov DSSS cell

Duchcov, 5.9.2013 18:45, (ROMEA) The Duchcov cell of the right-wing extremist Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS), which is led by convicted con artist Jindřich Svoboda, is continuing to do its best to spark anti-Romani sentiment there. Right-wing extremists have begun to spread untrue information about a Romani man allegedly breaking into a woman's apartment and attempting to rape her.  full story

Czech Republic: The two faces of ODS - Populism vs. reality

Prague, 4.9.2013 17:55, (ROMEA) On 23 August 2013, the press spokesperson for the Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana - ODS) verbally promised that the party would be issuing a statement on the anti-Roma demonstrations planned for the next day across the country. The party has yet to issue an official statement on those events.  full story

Europe Roma International assembly in Prague calls for stricter laws against right-wing extremism

Prague, 3.9.2013 16:47, (ROMEA) At 14:00 today about 15 protesters gathered in Prague in front of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic to deliver government representatives a declaration from the Europe Roma International (ERI) initiative. Miroslav Tancoš, chair of the Romani Democratic Party (Romská demokratická strana - RDS) read the declaration to the assembly.  full story

Analysis: Czech news outlet misleads readers by mastering Photoshop

Prague, 2.9.2013 22:04, (ROMEA) Have you always longed to become a regionally-recognized journalist whose articles will be read by many? Do you not know how to go about attracting that many readers? The Prostějov Evening News (Prostějovský Večerník) can advise you. Its editors have developed an effective system for achieving this. They have also demonstrated that they are more than proficient at working with Photoshop and have become first-class users of this technology in their field.  full story

Analysis: Czech NGO People in Need loses independence working with Provident Financial loan company

Prague, 2.9.2013 20:34, (ROMEA) The Provident Financial firm has launched a new TV ad. The message that will stick in many people's heads isn't that the company is offering new loans, but that it has connected its authority and name with the respected organization People in Need (Člověk v tísni).  full story

Commentary: Experts and extremists at Czech Television

Prague, 1.9.2013 22:21, (ROMEA) At public broadcaster Czech Television (ČT), anyone can be a sociologist. All it takes is to blame everything on the "inadaptables."  full story

Commentary: Frustration, political vacuum, and a society without vision

Prague, 1.9.2013 1:06, (ROMEA) It is both remarkable and symptomatic that the unrest in the Czech Republic this summer and the increasingly oppressive atmosphere in society is receiving no response from the country's political representatives. They are all so overwhelmed by their own operations, by the ongoing chaos and the "fight for parliamentary democracy" here that they have no energy left for what is going on beyond the walls of their party secretariats.  full story