News

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

Inclusive education from the Czech Republic to Georgia to the USA

26.1.2017 8:29 If you were to tell people anywhere else in the world that inclusive education was not required by law in the Czech Republic until 2016, they would be shocked. If you were to tell them that the main reason for this change having to be forced onto the system by the state is the absurd number of Romani children attending the so-called "practical schools", they would have a hard time believing you.  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

Czech capital one of more than 600 marches worldwide in solidarity with women demonstrating in Washington DC

21.1.2017 20:04 The Prague Solidarity Rally with the Women's March on Washington on Saturday, 21 January 2017, was one of over 600 events worldwide organized to coincide with the demonstration in the American capital. That march attracted over a half a million people and organizers say the global "sister rallies" were attended by over 3 million.

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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

American Ambassador to Czech Republic Cites Roma Causes, Russian Threat in Final Press Conference

19.1.2017 13:15 Outgoing American ambassador to the Czech Republic Andrew Schapiro said that supporting Roma causes was one of the things that has made him "most proud" during his time here and cited progress to remove the pig farm at the Roma Holocaust site in Lety as another positive development.  full story

Slovakia: More than 50 children from socially deprived families institutionalized since year began

19.1.2017 8:49 Since the beginning of this year audits have been underway of the living conditions in socially vulnerable families in Slovakia during the persistently cold weather, with social workers visiting thousands of families around the country and institutionalizing 56 children as of 17 January. "The consequence of our visits is that we discovered cases in which we had to remove the children. In some cases, our colleagues had to call ambulances for them," said the head of the Slovak Headquarters for Labor, Social Affairs and the Family, Marián Valentovič.
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Slovakia: Entrepreneur organizes food distribution to the needy

19.1.2017 7:21 The entrepreneur Marián Markovič has been organizing humanitarian aid since 9 January in the town of Komárna in southern Slovakia for homeless persons and the socially vulnerable. He reached out to local restaurants Alegra, Fiest, and Neptún, which have been providing him food, and posted to his Facebook profile asking people to give the needy warm clothing.  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

Hungary: Camerawoman gets three-year probation for kicking at migrants

17.1.2017 9:56 A court in the town of Szeged has placed Petra László, the Hungarian camerawoman for the N1TV station who kicked migrants at the Hungarian-Serbian border in September 2015, on probation for three years. The public defender is appealing and asking that his client be released.  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

Czech Republic: Romani Holocaust Memorial at Hodonín to open this summer

17.1.2017 7:49 The memorial to the Romani Holocaust at Hodonín u Kunštátu will open to visitors this summer. Trial operations should begin in July and the official opening will take place in August.  full story

Slovakia: MP for fascist party criticizes recipients of state honors because of their origins and work

16.1.2017 10:17 Stanislav Mizík, an MP with the fascist party called "Kotleba-People's Party our Slovakia" (LSNS) has criticized Slovak President Andrej Kiska for awarding high state honors to figures such as film director Juraj Jerz and the Czech musician Michael Kocáb. The MP justified his criticism by stating that those honored were of Jewish origin and by disparaging their activities.  full story