Commentary

Commentary: Is the Czech PM just a liar, or is he also paranoid?

6.6.2019 13:25  full story

Open Letter: Conveners of Holocaust commemoration are too quiet after politician disgraced it

23.5.2019 10:11  full story

Manipulation ahead of the EP vote: The tail wagging the dog

22.5.2019 19:03  full story

Commentary: What can the European elections improve? The Czech Republic's global image

16.5.2019 7:58  full story

Zeljko Jovanovic: Roma, make our voices heard in the European Parliament elections!

10.5.2019 12:28  full story

Commentary: Czech Republic, Slovakia must compensate the victims of forced sterilization while they are still alive

23.4.2019 15:45  full story

Commentary: Romani people should not live in fear, but justice systems are not helping

9.4.2017 14:33 At the beginning of March 2012, after the arson attack was committed against a Romani-occupied residential hotel in Aš, I and other members of the Romea.cz editorial team set out to visit the crime scene. We were unable to find out anything more by being there in person.  full story

Julius Zajac: Ideological extremism is no longer "rising" - it's already here

6.4.2017 15:52 On Wednesday, 22 March, a terrorist attack happened in London, England. On Thursday, 23 March, police thwarted another such attack in Antwerp, Belgium.  full story

Commentary: Paradoxes in the war on political correctness

31.3.2017 21:01 The war against political correctness is a long-term process that was begun in the Czech Republic by ultra-right extremists during the 1990s. Their motive was apparent: They wanted to legitimize racism and xenophobia so their own "politics" would be acceptable to the broadest possible circle of voters.  full story

Commentary: Czech Foreign Minister is all over the map when it comes to the issue of freedom of movement - why?

28.3.2017 11:04 My favorite demagogue, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek, is once again shining like a supernova in the night sky. He has declared war on the free movement of persons on the labor market inside the European Union.
 full story

Jana Šedivcová: Are all Czech children cat killers and all Romani children flamingo killers? Collective blame is unacceptable

17.3.2017 15:03 When I heard the news that children had killed one rare flamingo and seriously harmed another at the zoo in Jihlava, it made me dizzy. I felt the same when, the next day, a video appeared "on the net" of other children in another town who almost killed a cat by hanging it.  full story

Patrik Banga: I'm for collecting ethnic data in all areas, but the majority can't tell who is Romani

17.3.2017 10:17 Ivan Langr (Greens), Vice-Mayor of Liberec in charge of social affairs, has rebelled against the methodology recommended for estimating the number of Romani people in the regions that he has received from the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. As has already happened here more than once, Langr has sparked a tempestuous
discussion about whether estimating the numbers of Romani people should even happen and if so, what the appropriate method is to use.  full story

Czech Republic: NGO disagrees with court that principal discriminated against Romani preschoolers

11.3.2017 10:45 The Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) organization has issued a statement of support for the principal of the Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinova which, according to a judgment by the District Court in Ostrava, discriminated against two Romani preschoolers when it refused to enroll them into first grade in 2014. The organization disagrees with the court that principal Kamil Krahula behaved in a discriminatory fashion when making that decision.  full story

Commentary: Czech tabloid continues its anti-inclusion campaign

24.2.2017 9:46 At a time when we are facing so-called "alternative facts" (or untruths) more and more frequently in the public discourse, correcting the record appears to become more and more of a Sisyphean task. Long before the term "alternative facts" was used by an adviser to the US President, we here in the Czech Republic have been facing a textbook example of how facts and information are handled this way by the media.  full story

Stano Daniel: We need to rescue dogs from Slovakia's settlements but not humans?

23.2.2017 9:48 A stereotypical image of a Romani settlement is that many dogs live there. There are known cases of doctors, postal workers or social workers being afraid to visit the settlements because of the dogs.  full story

Michal Mižigár: Dža Devleha, Schapiro!

8.2.2017 7:09 Dža Devleha, or "be with God", is what is said in the Romanes language to somebody who is departing. On Friday, 20 January, the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Czech Republic, Andrew H. Schapiro, ended his term.  full story

Stano Daniel: Fico's the "gypsy", I am a Rom

3.2.2017 9:12 Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke about Romani people as "Gypsies" during a debate Sunday broadcast by the TA3 news station. He made his remarks in connection with the fact that businesses in Slovakia are having a problem finding employees.  full story

Commentary: Too soon to assess inclusive reforms in education

9.1.2017 7:57 The number of Romani pupils being educated with assessments of "mild mental disability" remains essentially the same this year as it did last year. Current data from the Czech Education Ministry basically confirm the previous findings from enrollments into first grade regarding the reassigment of children from the former "practical schools" into mainstream ones - namely, that no massive transfers of pupils have happened.  full story

Renáta Kováčová: Tragic death in UK of two Romani girls from Czech Republic sparks horrible online commentary

4.1.2017 7:30 Most of us have probably heard about the tragedy that happened on New Year's Eve in Great Britain when a driver ran into two young girls from the Czech Republic and then left the scene without providing them first aid. One girl died on the spot and the other also succumbed to her injuries later.  full story

Richard Samko on receiving the 2016 Roma Spirit Award: Give Romani people a chance!

15.12.2016 20:18 On Saturday 10 December 2016, Human Rights Day, I received the Roma Spirit Award in the category of Media. I would like to once again thank everybody who nominated me.  full story