Czech Republic

Czech musician minimizes his neo-Nazi past, but there is proof of his present links to right-wing extremists

20.12.2016 21:24 In a recent interview with radio anchor Zuzana Bubílková, Tomáš Hnídek Ortel downplayed the political significance of his band, Ortel, more than once and was intentionally vague about his own long-ago past and the band's more recent associations. Ortel asserts that he has nothing to do with the neo-Nazi movement today.  full story

Czech Republic marks five years since the death of President Václav Havel

19.12.2016 0:53 Several events taking place around the Czech Republic today commemorated the death of Czech President Václav Havel five years ago. In Prague there will be readings from his plays, a requiem mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, and an evening march to Prague Castle.  full story

Czech Republic: Many Romani families being evicted by year-end

19.12.2016 0:05 Czech Radio and news server iDNES.cz report that in the Czech town of Broumov in the Náchod area roughly 20 socially vulnerable families are set to lose their housing. Their leases are expiring before year-end and the landlords will not extend them.  full story

Karel Holomek on the "social unconscious" and the Roma Spirit Awards

18.12.2016 22:04 This year's Roma Spirit Awards had to grapple with a lack of comprehension from an unanticipated party: From Romani people themselves. I have done my best to grasp what has happened and it took me a long time before I understood it.  full story

Czech bank pulls advertising from disinformation websites, costing them revenue

18.12.2016 21:00 The Česká spořitelna bank has pulled its advertising from the disinformation websites that have been regularly leading their readers astray or very frequently distorting the information they report. Those news servers have now lost that advertising revenue.  full story

US Embassy to the Czech Republic gives Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to the "We Aid Refugees" organization

18.12.2016 19:38 On the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December), US Ambassador to the Czech Republic Andrew H. Schapiro gave the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award on 8 December to the organization "We Aid Refugees" (Pomáháme lidem na útěku - PLNU) for its work in the human rights area coordinating and supporting the aid provided by Czech volunteers to refugees on the so-called "Balkan route". "We are giving this award for the enthusiasm with which this organization aids people fleeing war-torn countries," Ambassador Schapiro said during the ceremony at his residence in Prague 6.  full story

Analysis: The Lety Romani Holocaust site as a "Gestapo concentration camp"

17.12.2016 3:07 The year 2016 has brought us absolutely new arguments in favor of removing the pig farm from the Romani genocide site at Lety. More than 70 years have passed since the end of the Second World War.  full story

Karel Karika: Czech children's comics were inspired by what is today a socially excluded neighborhood

15.12.2016 23:30 Karel Karika was born in 1960 in Ústí nad Labem, where he has lived and worked his entire life. He graduated from the Secondary Technical School in Teplice.  full story

Oksana Marafioti, successful American author with Romani roots, visits Czech Republic

15.12.2016 21:00 On the occasion of the 2016 Roma Spirit Awards, the Embassy of the United States of America in Prague welcomed Oksana Marafioti, an educator and significant writer with Romani roots. She arrived at the beginning of last week and practically never stopped during her full program - after giving an interview for the January issue of Romano Voďi she visited Romani organizations in Brno and Prague.  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

2016 Roma Spirit Awards in the Czech Republic: Ctibor Nečas, R-Mosty, Evangelical Academy, Richard Samko and Olga Fečová

15.12.2016 19:21 The 2016 Roma Spirit Awards for aid to the Romani minority and efforts at good coexistence were won this year by the R-Mosty company, the Evangelical Academy, and Czech Television journalist Richard Samko. The award for cultural contribution went to teaching assistant Olga Fečová, while the scholar Ctibor Nečas won in the Individual category.  full story

Dušan Červeňák: "I don't believe in projects much - you can't work with people from behind a desk"

15.12.2016 1:11 "This work is not about education, but about aid to those who need it," says DUŠAN ČERVEŇÁK, vice-chair of the Ostrava-based group Romipen. After 12 years of practical experience in Ostrava's excluded localities, where he has worked as a Romani adviser and field social worker, he decided this spring to establish his own nonprofit organization.  full story

Filip Sivák: Critical thinking is the greatest benefit of an education

15.12.2016 0:07 On 9 December, the ROMEA organization handed out its traditional Romano Suno awards for the Literary Competition for Romani Students at the American Center in Prague. The contest was announced on the occasion of International Romani Language Day.  full story

Czech Police refuse to publicize whether they are investigating death threats made on Facebook against Romani celebrity

14.12.2016 20:46 The Police of the Czech Republic are refusing, despite repeated questions posed to them by news server Romea.cz, to say whether they are investigating any of the reports of the multiple death threats that have been made against the Romani singer Radek Banga. Romea.cz has been informed that several criminal reports have already been filed in the matter.  full story

Facebook renews original page for "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" with 160 000 fans

13.12.2016 14:43 Last Thursday, Facebook once again blocked the hate page of the group "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" (Islám v ČR nechceme - IvČRN) which had more than 70 000 fans and had been used to send death threats to a young woman who wanted to aid Afghans. On Friday Facebook then renewed the original page of the IvČRN, which was blocked in January.  full story

Czech Islamophobes have a problem: Konvička has quit yet another political party and Facebook has closed their hate page

13.12.2016 12:41 The Islamophobe Martin Konvička has left the political party "Alternative for the Czech Republic" (Alternativa pro Českou republiku) after unsuccessfully running as its candidate in the October Senate elections in the Tábor area. On Facebook he has posted that he stopped believing in the party's project.  full story

Czech opposition leaders express support for Romani celebrity's protest against xenophobic band

12.12.2016 21:03 The chair of the TOP 09 party, Miroslav Kalousek, and former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg recently invited Romani musician Radek Banga and his wife to a friendly lunch. The politicians wanted to express their admiration for Banga's protest against an award being given to the xenophobic band Ortel during the "Czech Nightingale" contest, which he did by walking out of the auditorium during the live broadcast and not being afraid to publicly criticize the entire situation.  full story

Analysis of Czech-language Internet finds posts about Roma worse than two years ago - 80 % negative

11.12.2016 20:19 Romani people are discussed in the Czech language online predominantly in terms of stereotypes, and the voice of the Roma themselves in the virtual space is still proportionately weak. Media attention towards Romani people as a minority was overshadowed during 2015 and 2016 by a shift of focus to Muslims and refugees, but the
emotions expressed about the Roma are, at the same time, more negative than they were before.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court upholds suspended sentence for Nazi symbol on vehicle

8.12.2016 19:33 The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected the complaint of a driver who pasted the image of the Nazi Third Reich Eagle and swastika, i.e., a symbol of Nazi Germany, across the rear windshield of his vehicle. He was convicted, given a suspended sentence, and has appealed to successively higher instances.  full story

Czech court sentences youth to four months in prison for threatening to shoot man on Facebook

8.12.2016 6:51 Yesterday the District Court in Louny sentenced 20-year-old Vladimír Kudráč to four months in prison for making a death threat. The case is connected to the October death of a Romani man at a pizzeria in the Czech town of Žatec.  full story