News

Czech court fines politician for bribery and extortion in attempt to buy votes of Romani people

6.3.2017 9:38 News server Aktuálně.cz has reported that on 24 February the Municipal Court in Prague upheld the first-instance conviction of a former council member of the Prague-Letňany Municipal Department, Jan Mikulecký (for the Civic Democratic Party - ODS), over events during the 2014 municipal elections. Mikulecký must pay a fine of CZK 100 000 [EUR 3 700] for bribery and extortion or spend nine months in prison.  full story

Slovak President vetoes law to end runoff voting for Regional Governors

6.3.2017 8:36 Slovak President Andrej Kiska has vetoed a law on abolishing runoff elections for the Governors of Regional Administrations. The press department of the Office of the Slovak President informed the Czech News Agency of the veto on 24 February.  full story

Interview with Fedor Gál: It took me years to get that "solving the Romani problem" is nonsense

6.3.2017 7:44 When, eight years ago, we entered into the story of Natálka, the Romani infant who suffered burns during a neo-Nazi arson attack on her home in Vítkov, we had a messianic complex, Slovak sociologist Fedor Gál says in an interview for HlídacíPes.org, excerpted in translation below. A group of people from various professions got together to "supervise" how the family was managing to cope with the tragedy.  full story

European Commission reports Roma six times more likely to be poor in the Czech Republic than non-Roma

5.3.2017 8:25 The European Commission has published an analysis of the economic situation in the EU Member States, finding that while the Czech Republic is assessed relatively favorably from the perspective of economic indicators, there are several structural problems limiting the country's potential. Those problems are, for example, education, employment, and the social situation of some disadvantaged population groups.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani child adopted by a non-Romani family tells his story

4.3.2017 11:31 Otakar Chládek (age 21) was born in and grew up in the Pardubice Region and holds a certificate as a waiter from the Zámek High School for Crafts, Services and Trades in Žamberk, Czech Republic. He currently is attending a medical course for emergency medical technicians and would like to complete his secondary education after that.  full story

Czech court rules that school ethnically discriminated against Romani children by rejecting their enrollment

3.3.2017 12:35 The Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinova discriminated against two Romani preschoolers when it refused to enroll them into first grade in 2014, according to a ruling by the District Court there. The court found that the school was attempting to unjustifiably regulate the number of Romani children in the first grade class.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani-owned business distributes clothing, food and hygiene supplies to the needy in Teplice

1.3.2017 8:15 On 21 February the Romani-owned New Age Company organized a "GOOD WILL" („DOBRÉ VŮLE“) event in Teplice, Czech Republic. Employees used their own resources to put
together packages with clothing and hygiene supplies as well as refreshments and distributed them to homeless people and the socially vulnerable in the park near the train station.  full story

videoRomani entrepreneur Vladimír Michalčík: I always wanted to succeed in business

1.3.2017 7:58 Vladimír Michalčík, our guest on "Ten Minute Insight", actually embodies the saying that "Even if you hit rock bottom you can get back on your feet and change your life". He and his brother Roman have established two successful firms together with their friends.  full story

PHOTO GALLERY: Refugees living in abandoned warehouses in Belgrade, Serbia

1.3.2017 7:13 In several abandoned warehouses near the main train station in Belgrade, Serbia, roughly 1 200 refugees, predominantly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, are surviving in shocking hygienic conditions and low temperatures. Nighttime temperatures there at the end of January were around 15 degrees below zero Celsius.  full story

Czech tabloid uses old video from French taxi drivers' protest, claims it is of current protests by immigrants

28.2.2017 7:32 The Czech tabloid news server ParlamentníListy.cz has used its Facebook profile to manipulate its readers once again. The server has published year-old video footage of protesters throwing tires at cars as they drive by, captioning the footage with the sentence "This is Paris".  full story

Romani social worker on growing up at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech Republic

27.2.2017 7:09 Anna Siváková, now age 21, was born in and grew up at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech Republic. After graduating from the local primary school there she decided, unlike many of her schoolmates, to continue her studies beyond compulsory education, graduating from the high school in Most with a focus on social work.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani social workers share their experiences ahead of Rapid Re-Housing project in Brno

24.2.2017 12:43 The City of Brno will be renting apartments to 50 families now living in residential hotels and shelters in the city as part of its Rapid Re-Housing project. The amount of the rent charged will depend on the amount of housing benefit the tenants receive.  full story

Demonstration in Barcelona calls on Spanish state to receive more refugees

24.2.2017 12:03 As many as 160 00 people demonstrated in Barcelona last Saturday in favor of more refugees being received by Spain as the authorities pledged to do in 2015. Left-wing Mayor Ada Colau called on the demonstrators to fill the streets in a march called "We Want to Welcome Them".  full story

Czech Govt Council on Roma Affairs insists Museum of Romani Culture manage Romani Holocaust memorial at Hodonín

24.2.2017 11:04 The Czech Government Council on Roma Minority Affairs is insisting that the memorial to Romani Holocaust victims at Hodonín u Kunštátu be transferred into the administration of the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno. The council also disagrees with removing the term "Romani" from the name of the memorial.  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

Czech Human Rights Minister and Czech President discuss changing the Constitution and other laws

24.2.2017 8:16 Czech Minister for Human Rights and Legislation Jan Chvojka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) met on 18 February with Czech President Miloš Zeman and his advisers to discuss the position of the Government's Legislative Council, which Chvojka has chaired since December. The two men also held a lengthy debate about the law on social enterprises.  full story

Vice-chair of Czech party says new social housing law unnecessary, Romani activist disagrees

23.2.2017 11:01 Czech MP Markéta Pekarová Adamová, the vice-chair of the opposition TOP 09 party, was a guest of Czech Radio's "Interview Plus" program on 16 February. During her appearance she expressed her reservations about the social housing bill that the current Government promised, in its program declaration, to approve.  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

Slovak Police investigate suspected racially-motivated assault against dark-skinned French student

23.2.2017 8:48 A 20-year-old dark-skinned French student was assaulted over the weekend of 11-12 February in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. A 31-year-old Slovak man has been charged with grievous bodily harm and faces up to three years in prison if convicted.  full story

Slovak Regional Governor spreads rumors about attempted rape on a train, police refute them

23.2.2017 8:09 News server dennikn.sk reports that Marian Kotleba, Regional Governor of the Banská Bystrica Region and chair of a fascist party in Slovakia called the "People's Party Our Slovakia" (Ľudové strany Naše Slovensko - LSNS) announced at a press conference on Tuesday, 14 February that an attempt had been made the previous day to rape a 16-year-old girl on a train traveling across Slovak territory. Police and the railways have stated that his version of events is incorrect.  full story