Analyses

Analysis: Hungarian court verdict upholding life sentences for racist murders has taken effect

17.1.2016 1:45 In Budapest on 12 January, Hungary's Supreme Court rejected an appeal from three men accused of having committed a series of racist attacks as members of an organized group from 2008-2009 in nine locations around the country resulting in six deaths and five seriously injured victims. Árpád Kiss, his brother István Kiss, and Zsolt Pető were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, while their accomplice István Csontos will go to prison for 13 years.  full story

Analysis: Will Czech President Zeman make it into the 2015 extremism report?

17.11.2015 15:13 For almost 14 days the group called "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" (Islám v ČR nechceme - IVČRN) and its political wing, the Bloc against Islam (Bloc proti Islámu - BPI) have been constantly calling for people to attend an assembly in support of Czech President Miloš Zeman "in his opinions about immigration and Islam". The event is to take place at Albertov in Prague today on the anniversary of 17 November 1989 and 1939.  full story

Czech reporter's articles promote anti-Romani stereotypes through half-truths and manipulation

9.11.2015 21:49 The Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES and its Internet portal iDNES.cz have published a series of articles describing the development to date of a project in the town of Přerov spearheaded by local councilor Jiří Kohout, who has also been chair of the Public Affairs (VV) party since last year. The aim of the project was supposed to be (and still is) the employment of persons who have long been unemployed.  full story

Marek Szilvási: Czech Government should stop gambling with the country's reputation - the fight for compensation for forced sterilization is not over

4.11.2015 19:15 I remember being with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) just a couple of months when I was invited to Ostrava to an informal meeting with the Group of Women Harmed by Coercive Sterilization, an informal collective of harmed self-advocating Romani women. The meeting was organised by the local Life Together NGO in early April 2012 to celebrate the fact that after years of local activism, lawsuits and advocacy struggles, the Government’s Council for Human Rights had finally recommended the Government develop a compensation scheme for involuntarily sterilized women. A month earlier, the Group, Life Together and the ERRC had sent an official letter welcoming this government commitment. I took an early morning train and after a half-day journey from Budapest to Ostrava, I was warmly welcomed by the Life Together staff and the Romani women activists, whom until then I knew only through phone calls and email correspondence. After shedding my water-soaked coat I entered the second room and was introduced to Monika Šimúnková, the Czech Government’s Human Rights Commissioner, and Kateřina Valachová, now the current Minister of Education, who was at that time working for the Ombudsman. The atmosphere was relaxed, almost festive, and I soon succumbed to it and started expecting this controversy soon to be over.  full story

Czech media reopen dispute over Agency for Social Inclusion's approach to aiding Roma

13.8.2015 21:07 Czech commentator Petr Holub has revived the discussion on the future of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion with an analysis published on news server Echo24.cz. Holub believes that Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier began a fundamental change in the Agency's approach to social inclusion with his dismissal of the previous head of the Agency in April.  full story

Czech Labor Offices awarding housing benefits to more than half of all applicants

13.7.2015 23:07 Apparently thousands of new homeless people will not be created by municipalities in the Czech Republic after all. At least not for now.  full story

Tasks awaiting the Czech Education Ministry need more than a temporary replacement in charge

3.6.2015 19:16 Even though it may seem that Marcel Chládek is leaving office primarily because he has not treated women and colleagues not involved with sports well at the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, there are more reasons than that for his dismissal. The degree of his misconceived ideas, such as the distribution of tablet computing devices to schoolchildren, or the introduction of "practical" classes in the primary schools, had in fact exceeded all tolerable limits.  full story

Analysis: Czech PM must clarify Government's stance on discrimination in education

27.4.2015 16:37 A report by Amnesty International (AI) released last week reminded us of more than the fact that the discrimination of Romani children persists in the Czech schools. The differing reactions to the report from Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek and Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier once again showed that despite declarations of unity, the approaches taken by governing politicians to the future of inclusive education and the "practical schools" are very different.  full story

Will the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion survive its director's departure?

17.4.2015 20:40 On Thursday, 16 April, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier removed Martin Šimáček from his post as director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. Šimáček said in an interview for news server Romea.cz that what lies behind the change is a law on state service that is about to take effect.  full story

Documentary film review: "Suppressed Letters", about a Czechoslovak experiment with Romani children

12.4.2015 1:27 On 9 April, Czech Television broadcast the documentary film "Zatajené dopisy" ("Suppressed Letters"), which premiered at this year's One World Film Festival in Prague. In this film, director Tomáš Kudrna reveals the history of the so-called Květušínský experiment, which took place 65 years ago.  full story

Analysis: Roma replace Muslims as main target for Czech hate online

4.4.2015 21:30 Hatred on the Czech-language Internet has returned to its traditional target, Romani people, as a result of the declining outrage over January's attacks in Paris, when Muslims became the main target of Czech-language online hate. Current data from the Yeseter company measuring the intensity of hatred and its trends for the HateFree Culture initiative reveal several interesting facts, including the fact that most "haters" don't focus on a single theme, but can flow freely from "hating" one group to another.  full story

Czech News Agency produces biased, stereotyping report about Janov housing estate

25.3.2015 20:51, (ROMEA) In its 24 March report about the events around the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, the Czech News Agency, an independent public wire service, has committed some serious infractions against the "objective" reporting that is its mission under the law. The criticism levied by media analyses showing that Romani people ("inadaptables") are depicted stereotypically by the Czech media applies to this wire service to a great extent .
 full story

Internet discussions: To delete, or not to delete?

25.3.2015 17:23, (ROMEA) The vast majority of democrats are advocates of the broadest possible freedom of speech, because no democracy can exist without it. Those who back an absolute freedom of speech, however, are most frequently recruited, paradoxically, from the ranks of those who disseminate pornography or racism, people whom it may difficult for the rest of us to consider democrats.  full story

Karel Holomek: We cannot reconcile ourselves to segregation

23.3.2015 19:32, (ROMEA) The term "inclusive education" (inkluzívní vzdělávání) is turning up at a high frequency now and as a matter of course in all circles in the Czech Republic, both among experts and among lay people. We have all accepted it, whether we feel negatively or positively about it, without realizing that we have much more apposite, precise words already in Czech for what we might mean when we use this phrase.  full story

Struggle over Czech social housing law begins

20.3.2015 20:13, (ROMEA) Will the law on social housing currently being drafted strike a harsh blow against ghettos, residential hotels, and "trafficking in poverty"? Will even "inadaptables" have access to social housing?  full story

Analysis: Neo-Nazi murders of homeless in Czech Republic may not even be counted as such

Prague, 19.3.2015 22:30, (ROMEA) The recent case of the murderous attacks committed by a supporter of the neo-Nazi Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS) against defenseless homeless people, which news server Romea.cz reported on here, has once again pointed out an enormous problem in Czech society which the media are either ignoring altogether or greatly neglecting. Homeless people in the Czech Republic are frequently targeted for brutal assault.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani town councilor critiques antigypsyist petition

17.3.2015 19:09, (ROMEA) After spending a longer period of time out of the news, the Janov housing estate is once again being very actively discussed, and not only by local media. The proof is a petition asking for aid in addressing social problems that has been sent to Prime Minister Sobotka by a group of the "decent majority", led by the chair of the Krušnohor housing cooperative, František Ryba.  full story

Czech online environment cultivating hatred of Roma

16.3.2015 23:08, (ROMEA) "So the gypsies are going tol get preferential treatment at the Labor Office. They will also be giving them all CZK 60 000 for enrolling their children into school, where they will get free food."  full story

Director of Czech Gov't agency says petition against "gypsies" to PM is really about real estate

10.3.2015 19:10, (ROMEA) Dissatisfied citizens living at the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov have sent a petition to the Czech Government calling for a rigorous solution to their problems - they claim it is no longer possible to live there because of the "gypsy minority terrorizing the majority". They have also expressed concern that a hard-hitting anti-Romani event similar to the ones that took place there in 2008, which they call a "small-scale civil war", could be repeated.  full story

Janov residents petition Czech PM over "gypsies"

7.3.2015 0:10, (ROMEA) Residents of the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov who are calling themselves the "decent majority" have sent a petition to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. The residents are asking the state to aggressively intervene in their neighborhood.  full story