Features and Commentary

Gabriela Hrabaňová: Third EU Roma summit once more "about Roma without Roma"

Brussels, 18.3.2014 17:41, (ROMEA) The European Commission (EC) is convening its third European Roma Summit. With not quite three weeks to go before 4 April, the program of the summit remains unknown and invitations were only just now sent out to Romani organizations.  full story

Commentary: The new era of the Czech tabloid martyr

Prague, 17.3.2014 19:04, (ROMEA) During the past two weeks the Czech tabloid daily Blesk has undertaken a new practice that might be increasing its readership, but is also contributing to worsening the already bad relations between the majority society and the Romani minority. The editors at Blesk have published two articles in a brief space of time featuring detailed photographs of the faces of assault victims.  full story

Commentary: The mythical "decent gypsies" of the Czech Republic

Prague, 14.3.2014 17:39, (ROMEA) Everyone who isn't a racist knows a few decent gypsies - at least, that's what I read in internet discussions and that's what I hear from friends and strangers alike: "I'm not a racist, I even know a couple of decent gypsies..." I hear and read this so often that it has led me to reflect on who this mythical "couple of gypsies" really are, these people who are mentioned by anyone and everyone who is just about to pronounce some more racist nonsense.  full story

Commentary: Czech media exaggerate significance of crimes involving Roma

Prague, 14.3.2014 2:58, (ROMEA) Hundreds of serious violent crimes, including murders, are committed annually in the Czech Republic, but during the past few months no other case has received as much media coverage as that of a nighttime conflict between several drunken citizens in the small northern town of Duchcov. Everyone involved in the incident, including the state prosecutor, agrees that the conflict resulted not just in grave physical harm but, as both the state prosecutor and the attorney for the victims agree, it resulted in grave psychological harm to one of the victims, who has been prevented from returning to normal life for some time now.  full story

Czech human rights record poor on minorities

Prague, 5.3.2014 20:34, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz reported last week, the annual human rights report by the US State Department says societal discrimination and violence against Romani people were a serious problem in the Czech Republic last year. Below is the section of the report entitled "National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities":  full story

videoValeriu Nicoalea: About “normal life” and scapegoating…

Bucharest, 25.2.2014 15:17, (ROMEA) On January 16, 2014 the European Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights said in an interview for Euronews that Roma communities need “to be willing to integrate and to be willing to have a normal life”. See the video here from minute 2.00.  full story

Yaron Matras: A Roma reality check

London, 16.2.2014 0:30, (ROMEA) Fears of Gypsies flocking to these shores have proved unfounded. Now let's put prejudice aside and examine the real potential of a Roma contribution to the UK  full story

RomaReact: The European Parliament elections are approaching: Will Roma candidates succeed?

Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 13.1.2014 23:09, (ROMEA) It is not something new for a Roma origin person to run candidature in European Parliament elections and be a MEP, Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia was the first Roma ever to serve as a Member of the European Parliament, his example was followed also by Lívia Járóka or Viktória Mohácsi. As the 2014 European Parliament elections are approaching the reports about the increasing number of Roma origins candidates for MEP are increasing.  full story

Commentary: Sinti youth saves woman’s life in Italy

Vicenza/Naples, Italy, 9.1.2014 23:21, (ROMEA) When I heard about a Sinti guy saving a lady from certain death, my heart filled with pride. For once, finally, some local and national journalists reported news about a beautiful, spontaneous, heroic act of civil value.  full story

Jolana Šmarhovyčová: Six years after D.H. v Czech Republic, all that has changed are the school names

Ostrava/Prague, 25.11.2013 17:13, (ROMEA) This month marks six years since the groundbreaking judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of D.H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic. That judgment confirmed that the Czech Republic discriminates against Romani children by disproportionately sending them to what were once called the "special schools" and today are called "practical schools."  full story

Czech Green Party chair: Roma school segregation deeply engrained

Prague, 19.11.2013 21:23, (ROMEA) Last week marked six years since the groundbreaking judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of D.H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic. That judgment confirmed that the Czech Republic discriminates against Romani children by disproportionately sending them to what were once called the "special schools" and today are called "practical schools."  full story

Join the open letter to the Board of Czech Television on the depiction of Romani people

Prague, 9.11.2013 19:07, (ROMEA) Documentary filmmaker Lukáš Senft, who has previously written an open letter to the creators of the "Sanitka 2" television serial, has decided to contact the Board of Czech Television about his concerns. "I would like to know: Will Czech Television soon be taking a clear, decisive step toward more fair and socially sensitive productions that will present the complexity of our world through the language of images in a way that does not simplify or trivialize it, but that reveals contexts, carefully making and analyzing important connections?" Senft writes in his open letter.  full story

Image of Roma in the Czech media during 2013

Prague, 1.11.2013 1:19, (ROMEA) A second round table for journalists organized by the ROMEA association was held in Prague on 31 October. Ivan Vodochodský, an analyst with the Newton Média company, and representatives of ROMEA presented their joint analysis, entitled "Stereotypes in the Media Image of Roma during 2013" (Stereotypy mediálního obrazu Romů v roce 2013 - available in Czech only at http://www.mediainfo.cz/clanky/romove-v-neklidne-dobe/).  full story

Elena Gorolová (SRP), Romani candidate to the Czech lower house: I want to help those in need

Ostrava, 25.10.2013 23:02, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: We can fight back if necessary, but what about our children? Go vote!

Prague, 23.10.2013 0:05, (ROMEA) Romale, I presume you are all noticing how a large proportion of the political candidates are speaking about us in the television debates, how so-called experts on Romani people are proposing solutions for our lives. Notice how almost all of those solutions call for forceful measures - we're going to increase the numbers of police officers in the streets, hire police assistants, introduce CCTV systems in troubled localities.  full story

Czech Green Party candidate Czeslaw Walek: Romani topics have long been ignored

Prague, 21.10.2013 23:58, (ROMEA) The collaboration between the Green Party (Strana zelených - SZ) and the Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí - SRP) is the most significant offer to be made to a "Romani" party in the Czech Republic since 1990. The Greens have long focused on the topic of inter-ethnic coexistence and related questions and have also protested manifestations of racism.  full story

Burianská (SRP), Romani candidate to the Czech lower house: Roma are running to speak out

Vítkov, 19.10.2013 19:00, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Horváth (Změna), Roma candidate to the Czech lower house: I have a recipe for improving coexistence

Děčín, 12.10.2013 1:06, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Čeněk Růžička (SRP): We are counting on the Roma vote

Prague, 9.10.2013 23:02, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Czech anti-racist activist Barbora Antonová: Politicians won't condemn racist violence

Brno, 12.9.2013 21:13, (ROMEA) A Brno-based initiative of people opposed to right-wing extremism has called on influential personalities and politicians to clearly express their positions on the current wave of anti-Roma sentiment in the Czech Republic. The initiative is publishing those opinions on the "Nic než názor" (Nothing but Opinion) website, the name of which in Czech is a parody of the right-wing extremist slogan "Nic než národ" ("Nothing but the nation").  full story