Czech Republic

video VIDEO: Father of deceased Romani man says he has filed complaint against suspension of investigation

2.2.2017 21:39 In a video interview for news server Romea.cz, the father of Miroslav Demeter, the Romani man who died under mysterious circumstances in October 2016, expressed his opinion of the fact that the Czech Police have suspended the investigation.  full story

videoVIDEO: Czech Police proceeded incorrectly, attorney for family of deceased Romani man says

2.2.2017 21:03 News server Romea.cz has asked several questions of the legal representative of the bereaved in the case of the death of Mr Miroslav Demeter, the young Romani man who lost his life in a pizzeria in the town of Žatec after a conflict with other customers. JUDr. Michal Pacovský has assessed the procedure of the police to date for news server Romea.cz and described what he considers to be the basic misconduct that he believes police have committed.  full story

Czech Police find no crime was committed in death of Romani man last fall

2.2.2017 15:49 Czech Police have shelved the case of a young Romani man, Mr Miroslav Demeter, who died tragically on Tuesday, 18 October 2016 at around 19:00 in the Panamera Pizzeria in Žatec, Czech Republic. Police found no felony had been committed in relation to the incident.  full story

Czech Senate appearance by Romani celebrity to commemorate Holocaust backed by war veteran

2.2.2017 8:22 On 27 January 2017 the Czech Senate hosted its traditional commemorative gathering on the occasion of International Day of Holocaust Remembrance and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity. Senate chair Milan Štěch (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) said the Holocaust was the worst example of how far intolerance can go.  full story

Czech Police investigation of death threats against Romani celebrity continues, his brother targeted also

1.2.2017 7:05 Czech Police have confirmed to news server Romea.cz that they are continuing to investigate death threats against the Romani singer Radek Banga. The threats of physical annihilation and calls to "gas" Banga began to appear on his Facebook profile after he publicly criticized the success of the xenophobic band Ortel in the "Czech Nightingale" music competition.  full story

Czech performance of "Gypsy Boxer" in Brno postponed due to illness

30.1.2017 7:03 Brno's Buranteatr was scheduled to give a repeat performance of the play "Gypsy Boxer" (Cikánský boxer) by the German playwright Rike Reiniger, directed by Gabriela Krečmerová, today, but has canceled because of illness and will announce a new date for the performance soon. The commemorative one-man show recalls the fate of the Romani (Sinto) boxer Johann Trollman, who became the boxing champion of Germany in 1933.  full story

Romani celebrity addresses Czech Senate on International Day of Holocaust Remembrance

29.1.2017 9:32 On Friday 27 January 2017 the Czech Senate held its traditional commemorative gathering to mark the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity. The composer and singer Radek Banga gave a speech there in which he stated that he is unable to ignore any of the displays of hatred and xenophobia in today's world.  full story

Civil society members of Czech Gov't Council on Roma Affairs visit Brno to discuss policy with Romani community

29.1.2017 8:36 Members of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and government staffers visited nonprofit organizations in Brno working with Romani people last Tuesday and so-called socially excluded localities on Brněnská, Cejl and Francouzská Streets. The visit was one of the first that the members and staffers of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic will be gradually undertaking during 2017.  full story

Civil society members of Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs recap past three years of work

28.1.2017 10:15 The civil society members of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs (also referred to as the Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs) have recapitulated the Council's activities during the past three years for news server Romea.cz. Those members see as essential the fact that they enforced the concept of Romani people as a national minority - not as a social group - in the Government's Roma Integration Strategy to 2020.  full story

Czech court sends local politician to prison for 7.5 years for drug offense

27.1.2017 14:27 On 24 January the Ústecký Regional Court sentenced Marcel Cichý, an independent city assembly member in Trmice, Ústecký Region, Czech Republic, to 7.5 years in prison for organizing the sale of marijuana in Slovakia. This is the court's second decision in the case, and both the defendant and the state prosecutor are considering whether to appeal.  full story

Czech investigation into death of Romani man in a pizzeria will announce findings at press conference

27.1.2017 14:03 News server Lidovky.cz reports that the investigation into the death of Miroslav Demeter, Jr., who died on 18 October 2016 in a pizzeria in Žatec, is coming to an end and the findings will be announced at a joint press conference of the District State Prosecutor and the Czech Police as soon as possible. The family of the deceased has filed a complaint about the procedure undertaken by the District State Prosecutor in Louny, which is supervising the investigation, and the complaint is being reviewed by that same state prosecutor's office, as it also concerned the police procedure being supervised.  full story

videoCzech TV program features Romani university students

24.1.2017 7:08 On 22 January the Czech Television program "168 Hours" (168 hodin) broadcast a reportage about Romani college students. Prior to 1989 only about 20 Romani people had ever made it to study in institutions of higher learning in the Czech Republic, but today, according to reporter Martin Mikule, there are hundreds.  full story

Czech court reviews alleged racial discrimination during first-grade enrollments

23.1.2017 19:26 On Friday the Ostrava edition of Czech Television's "News in the Regions" program focused on a case of alleged racial discrimination against Romani pupils at Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinov which is now being reviewed by the courts. Two incoming Romani first-graders were allegedly rejected by the school because the management allegedly intended to reduce the number of Romani children in the incoming first-grade cohort.  full story

Review: Czech artist's "guide" to slumming in Brno's Romani neighborhood is a tasteless mockery

23.1.2017 8:12 "A Guide to the Brno Bronx - BRNOX - a Kateřina Šedá action" is the entire title of a publication that has recently sold out here in the Czech Republic. Its second subtitle (a Kateřina Šedá action) tells you all you need to know about what its real subject is.  full story

videoCzech Republic: Romani journalists in training visited excluded localities

22.1.2017 11:53 One component of the ROMEA organization's "Media Training for Future Romani Journalists" project last year was a three-day trip into the field. Thanks to our collaboration with the organization Český západ, the trainees had the opportunity to visit several socially excluded localities around Teplá and Toužim. While accumulating information for the articles they then wrote about the broadest possible range of subjects, the trainees also had the opportunity to rehearse fundamental
skills required to be television news reporters.  full story

Jozef Miker: It irritates me when Workers Party supporters recruit Roma against migrants

21.1.2017 16:17 Romani activist and volunteer Jozek Miker has given an interview to news server Romea.cz in which he explains why he has supported the Civil March for Aleppo, which is attempting to draw attention to the wartime conflict in Syria and the issue of refugee reception on the European continent. "The Roma have to see that when even we Roma are perceived as foreigners here, even after 700 years of coexistence, then [migrants] will logically be perceived as a foreign element here also," Miker said when explaining why he does not comprehend how some Romani people can reject migrants.  full story

Czech Police say threats to burn down ROMEA organization were not criminal

20.1.2017 20:50 The criminal report that the ROMEA organization filed at the beginning of December 2016 after a Facebook user threatened to burn down the organization's office has been shelved with the justification that it did not rise to the level of a felony. "The investigation undertaken did not ascertain facts from which it could reasonably be presumed that a felony had been perpetrated and justifying the beginning of prosecution under Section 158 paragraph 3 Criminal Code," reads the notification the organization received this week.  full story

Together We Can: David Tišer

18.1.2017 6:44 Romea.cz will be publishing interviews on a weekly basis with people who are doing interesting things to aid all of us in getting along here. When we were looking for a name for this column, the motto of this year's International Romani Day, "Together We Can", inspired me.  full story

Analysis: "Inadaptables get free apartments" - the Czech lie that kills

17.1.2017 11:50 The resistance of the ANO movement, the Christian Democrats, and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in the Czech Republic to social housing is based on fabrications that will have tangible consequences: People dying in the streets and broken families. The freezing temperatures falling to -20 C at night now form the backdrop to the coalition Government's tiffs over the planned law on social housing.  full story

Czech initiative says those in need of housing will not receive it unless law requires it

17.1.2017 8:59 The "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) initiative, which brings together more than 90 organizations working in the social sphere, resolutely rejects the Czech Government's proposal not to legally require municipalities to provide social housing in the Law on Social Housing now being drafted. The initiative says that if the law does not require municipalities to provide social housing for needy groups or create some other guarantee that aid will be provided by the state to those in need of housing, most of the 200 000 people now in need of housing will not be housed.  full story