Commentary

Commentary: Czech TV Prima broadcasts manipulative report about Roma returning from Britain en masse

3.8.2016 20:00 The Prima television station in the Czech Republic must have some sort of "anti-ethics code" obligating it to constantly incite the public against minorities. Previously, for example, it was revealed that its news editors were instructed by their superiors to report about refugees in exclusively negative terms.    

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Emílie Žigová: Czech ethnologist's rhetoric reminiscent of the Nazi era

23.7.2016 17:04 I recently read an article by ethnologist Mnislav Zelený-Atapany in the Lidové noviny daily called "Is a genocide against whites next for Europe?" (Je na řadě genocida bělochů v Evropě?). The peice opens by attempting to describe the feelings of an ordinary person who is both afraid and angry that politicians are not telling people the truth and that the danger posed by terrorist attacks is growing here.  full story

Commentary: Integration of impoverished Roma must begin immediately in the Czech Republic

18.7.2016 8:17 Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman has said good-faith, intensive negotiations are underway with stockholders to remove the pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp at Lety where Romani people died. Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier has said he believes a law on social housing can still be approved before the next elections.  full story

Czech commentator: The Nice attack is all about the PR of fear

17.7.2016 17:01 If you want to be seen, you must be in the media, and if you want to be in the media, then you must make yourself visible. What are all these terrorist attacks really about?  full story

Prarthna Johri: Being an American in Prague is a curious thing

1.7.2016 14:57 There are practices vastly different here, such as the pleasantness of people you sit with on a train. You will get a warm, “Dobrý den!” and when you leave you’ll receive a “Na shlédanou!”. The brusqueness of the waiters and waitresses is another change but my personal jury is still out on whether the fake happiness of tip-motivated American waiters is better than the genuine lack of caring.
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Prarthna Johri: Make American Hate Again

1.7.2016 10:40 Donald Trump is a candidate unlike anything the United States has seen. He is brash and is unrestricted by the constraints of political correctness. He turned his nose up at his fellow opponents for accepting donations and has told his supporters not to contribute money. He has absolutely no political experience, despite having years of business experience behind him. He stands for nearly everything that the average candidate does not.  full story

František Kostlán: Brexit is unwelcome because the British are great. Let's not be vindictive.

28.6.2016 7:14 The main reason Brexit is unwelcome hasn't been said yet: The British are great - they are simply themselves, with their experienced, ingrained democracy and their bravery, dedication and humanity. In other words, they have all the things we lack.  full story

British educator, ashamed of his country's vote on remaining in EU, calls for referendum on exit terms

26.6.2016 10:13 Mark Penfold, an educator and founding member of the Roma Education Support Trust, has written the following letter in response to the results of the referendum on Brexit. News server Romea.cz republishes it here in full.  full story

Timea Junghaus: Roma art as an act of resistance

27.5.2016 21:27 On May 16, Europe’s Roma commemorated the 1944 uprising in the so-called Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy Camp”) in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, the idea of Roma resistance is understood as the Roma people’s perseverance in fighting different forms of oppressions, now and in the past.  full story

Member of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union says chair did not speak for her during the Terezín commemoration

17.5.2016 15:02 As a member of the Founding Organization of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) in Kladno, I must respond to the speech given by the chair of the ČSBS, Jaroslav Vodička, on behalf of all the members of the ČSBS during the official speeches at the Terezín commemoration on 15 May 2016. Speaking as a representative of the ČSBS, Vodička called for protecting our borders against refugees and for the protection of our culture.  full story

Commentary: Czech tabloid quotes Romani man as opposing inclusive education, other Romani representatives respond

3.5.2016 7:52 The Czech tabloid Blesk.cz has been engaged in a campaign to prevent the closure of the separate special needs schools and to prevent the abolition of the "Appendix to the Framework Education Program on Mild Mental Disability". As part of that campaign, the tabloid chose to contact Andrej Lučka, the regional chair of the Romani Democratic Party in Rokycany and the chair of the "Help Roma" organization (and apparently a special school graduate himself), who told the tabloid, among other things, that he will "Defend [his] practical and special school at any cost, even with pitchforks".  full story

Adriana Trejtnarová: Inclusive education must include everything

15.4.2016 20:30 Inclusive education? Yes, but it must include everything and naturally it must benefit the child, as that is what we are after.  full story

Commentary: Romipen is democratic, enriching not just Romani people but Czech society, Europe and the world

4.4.2016 21:27 Friday 8 April will be International Romani Day. In the Czech Republic the largest number of events on this day will be held in Brno.  full story

Karel Holomek: Migration crisis not new, Roma migrated from Slovakia post-WWII and to Canada post-1989

31.3.2016 17:14 Last weekend the international "Dialogue in the Center of Europe" (Dialog uprostřed Evropy) conference was held in Brno, one that has traditionally been held there for many years. This year's topic was "Historical and European perspectives on the approach to refugees".  full story

Parent of child with Down Syndrome writes open letter to Czech tabloid waging anti-inclusive education campaign

25.3.2016 18:46 Tomáš Hečko, the parent of a child with Down Syndrome, was approached by the tabloid daily Blesk in the Czech Republic for an interview on the topic of inclusive education and decided not to give them one. "Your newspaper has abandoned the pretense of even attempting to appear objective and instead of providing information is leading a campaign - a campaign against several thousand children with mild mental disability who are exercising their right to an inclusive education (or who want to do so in future) in the mainstream primary schools. You are also waging this campaign against us, the parents," he wrote in an open letter to the Blesk reporter.  full story

Yaron Matras: Do Roma need protection from themselves? The Council of Europe comes under fire from academics for reinforcing prejudice

24.3.2016 23:43 Almost one hundred academic researchers specialising in Romani studies have signed an open letter to the Council of Europe’s Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, expressing their concern about a recent Council of Europe communication announcing its new four-year Thematic Action Plan on Roma and Traveller Inclusion. They take issue with the statement’s depiction of Roma as having a pre-disposition to early marriage, violence, organised crime and begging, and say that such suggestions contribute to, rather than confront stigmatisation and prejudice.  full story

Yveta Kenety: Czech daily again manipulates public with biased, outdated information about Roma

24.3.2016 17:14 One of the most recent examples of manipulative journalism that breaks all the rules on writing a quality article is the Právo daily's piece published on 21 March on their online news server Novinky.cz with the misleading headline "European Judges: Czech Republic was basically punished for trying to educate Roma". The report is about the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of D.H. and Others versus Czech Republic and quotes three judges who voted against that judgment as if it were a hot news item the journalist had to go straight to Strasbourg to get.  full story

David Beňák on the Czech inclusive education debate, the invisible, and the unheard

23.3.2016 21:27 Educating all children together is a basic, normal approach to education that must be the standard in the Czech Republic. It is a good standard to set ourselves.  full story

Editorial: Czech Senator publishes untruths in defense of segregated school

10.3.2016 16:24 At the close of February, the Czech School Inspection (Česká školní inspekce - ČŠI) published its inspection report from its monitoring of the Primary School in the town of Krásná Lípa. In September 2015, Romani parents there had complained that their children had been concentrated into a single class.  full story

Czech Green Party chair describes hateful verbal assault on Prague public transport

5.3.2016 21:34 It's happened to me twice now, within a very short amount of time. I get on the tram, take a seat, and suddenly behind me, from the rear platform, someone starts yelling this to the whole tram car: "That's the creep who's inviting Muslims to our country to rape our Czech women, I'm telling everybody here, that's Matěj Stropnický, look at him" (the whole tram turns to look and a couple of people laugh at me) "the shame of our nation! What are you doing, you motherfucker? You wanna take me? Come on, get out, let's go!" (by now the tram is absolutely silent and, what's more, we're in a traffic jam).  full story