Czech Republic

2016 saw Czech President's convergence with China and with Trump

2.1.2017 7:26 The last year of Czech President Miloš Zeman's foreign policy agenda was characterized by further rapprochement with China, supporting US president-elect Donald Trump and fewer trips abroad than in past years. He did not avoid controversies, such as when he openly supported particular candidates running for president in both Austria and the USA.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani tenants at risk of eviction got their leases extended

31.12.2016 20:33 The mass eviction of tenants from seven apartment buildings in the Cejl Street area of Brno, which more than 110 families were in danger of at the end of this year, has been postponed. The owner of the properties, the Fidurock Brno company, has extended the tenants' leases and begun to negotiate payment plans with rent defaulters, the Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES reported yesterday.  full story

Czech artist writes a guide to the Brno "Bronx", says Romani people "uninterested" in education

27.12.2016 22:18 The Brno-based artist Kateřina Šedá and a team of collaborators have put together a "guide" to Brno's so-called "Bronx" neighborhood and she has given an interview to news server iDNES.cz in which she criticizes the life of Romani residents there. The artist is quoted as saying in the interview that local Romani people are not interested in education and that their children's aim in life is to draw unemployment benefit because that is what they see adults doing in their families.  full story

Czech President attacks some welfare recipients, rejects immigrants, says Interior Ministry is "censoring" the Internet

27.12.2016 19:51 Czech President Miloš Zeman has sent his traditional Christmas message from the presidential residence in Lány, expressing appreciation for the good state of the economy being reflected in Czechs' standard of living and criticizing low levels of public investment, alleging that subsidies for renewable energy and some welfare benefits are a drag on the economy. Zeman also rejected the Czech Republic voluntarily accepting immigrants, whom he believes could spawn terrorist attacks.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani community organizes Christmas party for children's home in Jihlava

23.12.2016 17:18 Romani community members from all over the Czech Republic have organized a Christmas party for the children in a Jihlava Children's Home, most of whom are also Romani. The idea of holding the party came from Robert Tonelli, who grew up in a Children's Home himself and wanted to make the children's Christmas holiday more pleasant, as well as to give them something from the heart.  full story

Czech court sentences Romani man to prison for racist abuse while mourning a relative's death

22.12.2016 4:34 The District Court in Louny has sentenced 41-year-old Miroslav Fedák to eight months in prison for defamation of a nation and race. During a commemoration of the young Romani man who died in a pizzeria in October, Fedák shouted racist, vulgar abuse.  full story

Czech presidential candidate said three years ago that Roma justifiably feel surrounded by barriers

21.12.2016 16:43 The following interview was conducted in 2013. Earlier this year Michal Horáček announced he will run for Czech President in 2018.  full story

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