News

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

Macedonia: The Queen of Romani Music, Esma Redžepova, has passed away

15.12.2016 2:14 Esma Redžepova, who was acknowledged worldwide as the Queen of Romani Music, passed away on the morning of 11 December in Skopje, Macedonia at the age of 73. The hospital where the singer was being treated announced her death.  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

Germany: Pegida speechmaker charged with arson against mosque

14.12.2016 22:35 On 9 December the German media reported that the Federal General Prosecutor has filed charges against a man named Nino K. alleging that he committed arson attacks against a mosque during the week prior to the September celebration of the state holiday of German reunification. He is also charged with committing arson against the Congress Center in Dresden and planting fake bombs on a bridge there.  full story

Czech Police refuse to publicize whether they are investigating death threats made on Facebook against Romani celebrity

14.12.2016 20:46 The Police of the Czech Republic are refusing, despite repeated questions posed to them by news server Romea.cz, to say whether they are investigating any of the reports of the multiple death threats that have been made against the Romani singer Radek Banga. Romea.cz has been informed that several criminal reports have already been filed in the matter.  full story

Facebook renews original page for "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" with 160 000 fans

13.12.2016 14:43 Last Thursday, Facebook once again blocked the hate page of the group "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" (Islám v ČR nechceme - IvČRN) which had more than 70 000 fans and had been used to send death threats to a young woman who wanted to aid Afghans. On Friday Facebook then renewed the original page of the IvČRN, which was blocked in January.  full story

Czech Islamophobes have a problem: Konvička has quit yet another political party and Facebook has closed their hate page

13.12.2016 12:41 The Islamophobe Martin Konvička has left the political party "Alternative for the Czech Republic" (Alternativa pro Českou republiku) after unsuccessfully running as its candidate in the October Senate elections in the Tábor area. On Facebook he has posted that he stopped believing in the party's project.  full story

Czech opposition leaders express support for Romani celebrity's protest against xenophobic band

12.12.2016 21:03 The chair of the TOP 09 party, Miroslav Kalousek, and former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg recently invited Romani musician Radek Banga and his wife to a friendly lunch. The politicians wanted to express their admiration for Banga's protest against an award being given to the xenophobic band Ortel during the "Czech Nightingale" contest, which he did by walking out of the auditorium during the live broadcast and not being afraid to publicly criticize the entire situation.  full story

Slovakia: Many youth support the ultra-right, study finds

12.12.2016 15:59 Many young Slovaks support the ultra-right party called Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS). Marian Kotleba, the Governor of the Banská Bystrica Region and the party leader, also enjoys great popularity.  full story

Impoverished native Italians rebel against Moroccan immigrants inhabiting social housing

12.12.2016 6:53 Impoverished native Italians are rebelling against the provision of social housing to immigrants. The inhabitants of Rome's low-income San Basilio quarter recently prevented a Moroccan family from moving into an apartment building for the socially vulnerable there.  full story

Analysis of Czech-language Internet finds posts about Roma worse than two years ago - 80 % negative

11.12.2016 20:19 Romani people are discussed in the Czech language online predominantly in terms of stereotypes, and the voice of the Roma themselves in the virtual space is still proportionately weak. Media attention towards Romani people as a minority was overshadowed during 2015 and 2016 by a shift of focus to Muslims and refugees, but the
emotions expressed about the Roma are, at the same time, more negative than they were before.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court upholds suspended sentence for Nazi symbol on vehicle

8.12.2016 19:33 The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected the complaint of a driver who pasted the image of the Nazi Third Reich Eagle and swastika, i.e., a symbol of Nazi Germany, across the rear windshield of his vehicle. He was convicted, given a suspended sentence, and has appealed to successively higher instances.  full story

Czech court sentences youth to four months in prison for threatening to shoot man on Facebook

8.12.2016 6:51 Yesterday the District Court in Louny sentenced 20-year-old Vladimír Kudráč to four months in prison for making a death threat. The case is connected to the October death of a Romani man at a pizzeria in the Czech town of Žatec.  full story

Czech Republic: Demonstration supports 100+ families at risk of eviction in Brno

7.12.2016 19:46 More than 100 households in the apartment buildings of the Brno-Zábrdovice quarter are living in uncertainty. The buildings' owners are changing and the new owner plans repairs to the properties.  full story

Kate Lapham: School should be a place where children learn how to live in society as citizens, to treat each other with respect, and to solve problems

7.12.2016 17:30 Kate Lapham: School should be a place where children learn how to live in society as citizens, to treat each other with respect, and to solve problems
Interview with Kate Lapham, senior Program Manager, Open Society Education Support Program

First I would like to ask you about whether there are any interesting projects in Europe that we could see as successful examples of integration under challenging circumstances?
There has been a great experience in Northern Ireland around the integration of Catholic and Protestant students. The aim is to put these two groups of students, who had previously been experiencing or still are experiencing the impacts of the conflict there within their own family, into the same school environment so they can learn together and also live together again.  full story

Czech court overturns fine against attorney who objected to expert by alleging he was Jewish

7.12.2016 14:08 The attorney Petr Kočí has successfully appealed a fine against him for alleging court expert Michal Mazel was of Jewish origin. The attorney was defending a member of an ultra-right party and claimed Mazel's alleged origin would bias him against the defendant  full story

Commentary: Online social networks censor photos of Syrian war, ignore dissemination of hatred

7.12.2016 13:14 Recently Facebook covered over a couple of photographs on my profile with a grey rectangle because they were not appropriate for children. One photo, from wartime Aleppo, showed the corpse of a child with his leg bent at a right angle at the tibia and other corpses mutilated by a bomb explosion after an attack by Assad's army and the Russians.  full story

About 1 000 Romani residents of a single Slovak village have been working in Britain and now fear Brexit

7.12.2016 8:26 Reuters reports that Romani residents of Bystrany, Slovakia are concerned about the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union because most of them are working in Britain and sending remittances home. These people now are afraid the option of their working in Britain will soon end.  full story

Slovak President says education is the way to address Romani issues

7.12.2016 7:49 President of the Slovak Republic Andrej Kiska visited the Podskalka Primary School near the town of Humenné two weeks ago. "We're all aware that the Romani issue, how to best include Romani people in everyday life, is a question of education," news server aktualne.sk quoted him as saying.
 full story