Media monitoring

Czech Republic: New law would mean thousands at risk of homelessness

Brno, 3.2.2014 17:31, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that more than 3 000 socially excluded people live in residential hotels throughout the Czech city of Brno. A forthcoming amendment would restrict residency in such facilities to the length of one year but does not address what would happen to those who have to move away after a year's time.  full story

Roma are EU citizens too, Romanian President says

Bucharest, 1.2.2014 13:49, (ROMEA) Romanian President Traian Basescu on Friday (31 January) strongly defended freedom of movement within the EU, saying Roma have the same rights as other EU citizens and should not be misused for populist campaigns.  full story

French MP avoids jail after saying Adolf Hitler "maybe didn't kill enough" Roma gypsies

Paris, 26.1.2014 14:04, (ROMEA) A French MP has avoided jail after he was caught on camera saying “Hitler maybe didn't kill enough of them” during an altercation with a Roma community close to the town he is mayor of.  full story

Hungarian far-right leader Gabor Vona vows to address rally in London

London, 26.1.2014 13:45, (ROMEA) The leader of an extreme Hungarian nationalist party has declared that the furore over his controversial visit to London on Sunday has made him even more determined to speak in Britain.  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

Czech Republic: Vice-mayor says Roma must fight for respect

Ralsko, 7.1.2014 21:38, (ROMEA) Oto Váradi is vice-mayor of the northern Bohemian village of Ralsko. News server Česká pozice has published an interview with him.  full story

Czech Republic: Art is fined, but flags defaced by sports fans don't bother bureacrats

Prague, 6.1.2014 3:05, (ROMEA) The artist Tomáš Rafa has been fined over his recent exhibition of Czech-Roma flags. The same treatment should of course be given to those who write the names of their towns on the state flag or otherwise deface it, as the law on the use of state symbols says the flag must never be soiled, torn, or written on.  full story

The real story of Britain's Roma: excluded, ignored and neglected

Sheffield (UK), 17.11.2013 0:48, (ROMEA) The headquarters of Britain's biggest Roma charity is a large building beside a major thoroughfare in east London, yet its official address is a PO box. The fear of reprisal against Britain's Roma community, even in the capital's most multicultural borough, remains real.  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

Europe’s Roma Face ‘Witch-Hunt’ After Reports of Child-Snatching

Dublin, 24.10.2013 9:40, (ROMEA) A recent spate of cases involving members of the Roma community and allegations of child-snatching has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on Europe’s attitudes and treatment of the Roma, and what some are calling a “witch-hunt” against one of Europe’s largest ethnic minorities.  full story

Czech Republic: Neighbors of residential facility claim crime is up, police say otherwise

Červený Újezd, 30.8.2013 21:08, (iDNES.cz) News server iDNES.cz reported on 28 August that social tensions are rising in the town of Červený Újezd (Teplice district). Local residents are complaining that the owner of a former refugee camp facility is moving in people whom iDNES.cz termed "inadaptable", as well as persons just out of prison.  full story

Czech expert says right-wing extremists will fail at the polls

Prague, 30.8.2013 19:33, (ROMEA) The expectations of right-wing extremists last weekend were not fulfilled. According to police estimates, only 2 000 people total attended the anti-Roma demonstrations and marches convened by the movement in České Budějovice, Duchcov, Jičín, Ostrava and Plzeň.  full story

Denitsa Mihaylova: A Bulgarian woman proud of her Roma origin

Sofia, 26.7.2013 13:30, (ROMEA) Denitsa Mihaylova is the first and, so far, the only woman of Roma origin who works at the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She speaks to her 5-year-old daughter Madona like an adult, demanding that she take decisions on her own, including what to order from a menu full of tempting dishes.  full story

French MP allegedly said Hitler didn't kill enough Travellers, he denies it

France, 23.7.2013 15:50, (ROMEA) A remark allegedly made by a French MP who is also the mayor of the town of Cholet regarding several hundred Travellers who set up camp on municipal land there last Sunday has caused a sensation in France. French daily Le Courrier de l'Ouest reported that Gilles Bourdouleix, accompanied by four municipal policemen, visited the Travellers to eject them from the campsite. They greeted him with the Nazi salute and accusations of racism. He is alleged to have mumbled in response that "Hitler didn't kill enough of them".  full story

Fedor Gál: Just one spark and we have a pogrom - Roma are the first to be attacked

Prague, 17.7.2013 21:23, (ROMEA) During the recent anti-Roma demonstrations at the Máj housing estate in České Budějovice, many of those in attendance have also protested being labeled "racists" or "radicals". Sociologist Fedor Gál explains what racism is and isn't and what we should ask Romani people about. "When someone brings up the anti-Romani topic because he wants to keep his position of power, then that person is himself a criminal, a deviant," Gál said in an interview for the Czech daily Mf DNES.  full story

Czech Senator Okamura: Let's "democratically" send the Roma to India

Prague, 1.7.2013 17:59, (ROMEA) The online magazine Česká pozice (Czech Position) published the following commentary on 28 June, which news server Romea.cz presents here in full translation:  full story

Czech Television: Social networking sites buzzing before neo-Nazi march in Duchcov tomorrow

Prague, 21.6.2013 22:23, (ROMEA) Czech Television reports that right-wing extremists using Facebook in the Czech Republic have sprung to life over the past few days: News has been rapidly spreading about an alleged assault by Romani people at the Krásné Březno housing estate in Ústí nad Labem on a 16-year-old youth. While the case does exist, police are not issuing any information about it for the time being.  full story

Czech media misreport that victim of crossbow shooting was allegedly a thief

Prague, 6.6.2013 19:17, (ROMEA) The incident in Chotěbuz that was recently ruled on by the court was not one in which a thief (or even an alleged thief) was shot with a crossbow. The person who was shot was with a small group of scrap metal collectors who claimed to always perform their activities with the permission of the owners of the buildings or the land from which they did the collecting.  full story

Czech Republic: Last Romani families leave Ostrava's Přednádraží street

Ostrava, 5.6.2013 16:07, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz reports that after a roughly 10-month fight to remain in one last building on Přednádraží street in Ostrava, the Romani families left there (about 20 people) have decided this week to definitely move out. Nonprofit organizations involved with them, however, do not want to give up on the matter and are considering filing a lawsuit against the role played by the authorities in the eviction process.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani woman files charges against neighbor for slander

Ústí nad Labem, 18.5.2013 9:35, (ROMEA) The regional daily Ústecký deník has used the term “war” in its reporting about an incident last weekend in the Krásné Březno neighborhood of Ústí nad Labem. Police are now investigating.  full story