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Czech Police investigating anonymous antisemitic letter in Prostějov

20.2.2017 6:26 Police are investigating the circumstances of an anonymous letter full of antisemitic insults and vulgarities that has been sent to different people in Prostějov in connection with the sometimes passionate discussion about how to arrange for dignified remembrance at the site of the former Jewish cemetery near the local school. Representatives of an American philanthropic foundation, Kolel Damesek Eliezer, which is attempting to rehabilitate the Jewish cemetery, are planning to report a crime because of the anonymous letter that has been addressed to bureaucrats and residents of Prostějov.  full story

Son of former Czech President disseminates photo online with misleading Islamophobic commentary

19.2.2017 19:51 Václav Klaus, Jr. published a photograph from Iran on his Facebook profile on 15 February that purported to show women in Iran having to sit on the floor while the men around them were seated on chairs, commenting on it as follows: "A picture is sometimes worth more than a thousand words. This is (now this weekend) the beginning of the Women's World Chess Championship in Tehran. This is about female journalists - I don't know whether Iranian or from abroad. This is a decent country, uncontrolled street violence does not happen here. They are not far from developing a nuclear weapon. Despite that, their idea that a woman is considered the kind of being that is closer to a dog - doesn't that give you mixed emotions?"  full story

Slovak Police charge woman with threatening Muslims and Roma through Facebook, she faces six years in prison

18.2.2017 14:21 Slovak Police arrested a 24-year-old woman yesterday who disseminated a video recording of herself through social networks setting fire to a copy of the Quran after tearing it to pieces, urinating on it, and making threats against Muslims. The Slovak woman faces charges of extremism and other felonies.  full story

Czech Republic: The English College in Prague fundraises for Romani student scholarship

18.2.2017 10:41 Students attending The English College in Prague are holding a benefit concert for the school's Václav Havel Scholarship in collaboration with the National Gallery on 22 February at Prague's St. Agnes Convent to raise money for a Romani student to study at the prestigious secondary school. "We study at a school where our accent, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or skin color do not matter. We appreciate that, and therefore we would like to make it possible for another Romani pupil to study together with us," the invitation to the event, authored by the students, reads.  full story

Austria: Hitler impersonator arrested for appearing in the Nazi leader's home town

18.2.2017 9:59 A man who appeared in public dressed to appear like Adolf Hitler was arrested Monday, 13 February by police in the northern Austrian town of Ried im Innkreis. The impersonator of the Nazi leader had appeared several times in Hitler's birthplace as well, the Austrian Press Agency reported on 14 February.  full story

Czech state chooses firm to appraise pig farm on concentration camp site

18.2.2017 9:21 The Czech Culture Ministry has chosen a firm to produce an expert appraisal of the value of the pig farm at Lety u Písku located on the site of what was once a concentration camp. The B.S.O. expert institute of Prague will produce it and is being paid CZK 228 690 (EUR 8 463) inclusive of VAT to do so.  full story

Slovakia: Criminal charges filed against play about neo-Nazi arson attack in Czech Republic

18.2.2017 7:58 The Slovak National Theater (SND) has produced a play for students about the 2009 arson attack committed in Vítkov, Opava district, Czech Republic as an example of extremism, but after seeing the performance at a high school this month, its critics have reported it to the police for the suspected crime of defamation on the basis of nationality, political convictions or race. SND has responded by saying those who reported the play to police are attempting to intimidate teachers into not inviting the theater to schools.  full story

Czech NGO working with Roma says state is punishing the poor and motivating them through fear

17.2.2017 14:51 From the beginning of February an amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress has been in effect in the Czech Republic. In addition to other matters, the amendment establishes
that the aid provided to those in material distress (the minimum subsistence allowance) shall be reduced by roughly one-third for people who have been unemployed for one year and have not performed at least 20 hours of unremunerated work per month for their local authority's public works department.  full story

German court sentences xenophobes to seven and eight-year prison sentences for arson

17.2.2017 12:22 Six men, including a member of the ultra-right National Democratic Party (Národnědemokratická strana - NPD), have been convicted by a court in Germany of committing arson against a building slated for use as an asylum-seekers' shelter in 2015. Politician Maik Schneider has received the longest sentence.  full story

German court awards compensation to Muslim woman not hired because of head scarf

17.2.2017 10:24 A German court has awarded compensation to a woman who was not hired by a primary school in Berlin because, as a Muslim, she wears a head scarf. Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported on 10 February that the establisher of the school must pay the rejected applicant the equivalent of two months' pay, or EUR 8 680.  full story

Czech Republic: Non-Romani men fighting "about a girl" misreported by media as neo-Nazi brawl with Roma

17.2.2017 7:53 Online news server udalosti112.cz broadcast reporting including video footage on 12 February claiming that a street battle had erupted in the town of Litvínov, Czech Republic between neo-Nazis and Romani people, writing about a "battle of a group of skinheads with local Roma" that "employed local and state police and emergency medical responders". News server Romea.cz was then contacted by an eyewitness to the incident who said it was not a clash between right-wing extremists and Romani people, but an ordinary "pub brawl" among non-Romani locals involving a dispute "about a girl".  full story

Czech court overturns acquittal in radical Islamic book distribution case

17.2.2017 7:04 The Prague Municipal Court, meeting in closed session, has overturned the acquittal of the former chair of the Muslim Community of Prague, Vladimír Sáňka, and returned the case to the District Court for Prague 1 to be reopened. Prague Municipal Court spokesperson Markéta Puci provided the information in response to a query by the Czech News Agency on 9 February.  full story

Czech Police close investigation into arson attack by neo-Nazis on the Klinika Social Center

16.2.2017 10:40 Prague Police have completed their investigation of the arson attack committed last year against the Klinika Social Center in the Žižkov quarter of Prague 3. The criminal case has been shelved because police failed to ascertain enough facts to begin felony prosecution of a specific suspect.  full story

Czech Justice Minister will not discipline state prosecutor accused of protecting racists

16.2.2017 9:10 Nine months ago the online daily Deník Referendum (DR) filed a motion with the Czech Justice Ministry for disciplinary proceedings to begin against Prague 1 District Attorney JUDr. Zdeňka Galková. Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán rejected that motion on 7 February.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister meets with management of Hate Free project to discuss its future

16.2.2017 8:21 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) met on 7 February with the leadership of the Czech Government's campaign against hate violence, Hate Free Culture. The three-year project, scheduled to end in April, combats hate speech and xenophobia as well as refuting fake news and hoaxes, mainly in the online environment.
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Senegalese model featured on Lidl ad in Czech Republic hired by company importing mobile phones

16.2.2017 7:22 The Lion Mobile company's latest advertising campaign in the Czech Republic features Senegalese model Alpha Dia, whose image in a flier for the Lidl retail chain sparked many racist commentaries on Faceboook. Lion Mobile imports Xiaomi telephones to the Czech Republic.  full story

Slovak Parliament changes regional election rules, extremists could benefit

16.2.2017 6:50 The Slovak Parliament has changed the rules for the direct election of the chairs (Governors) of the country's eight self-administered regions less than a year before the next elections are to be held. According to the opposition, the amendment could aid extremist candidates including some incumbents, six of whom were supported during the 2013 elections by the Social Democrats headed by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Směr-SD).
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Slovakia: Romani businessman stopped from distributing food to the homeless by authorities

15.2.2017 9:38 Marián Markovič is a 37-year-old businessman from Komárno, Slovakia. News server Romea.cz reported on his decision, roughly a month ago, to regularly aid local homeless people and the socially vulnerable.  full story

Together We Can: Jan Balog

14.2.2017 10:27 Last month, Romea.cz began 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, so the organizers and I have decided to call this column "Together We Can" as well.
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European Roma and Travellers Forum condemns offer made by self-appointed "king" to US President

13.2.2017 19:44 The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has indicated its dismay and outrage over the letter sent recently by Dorin Cioabă of Romania to US President Donald Trump suggesting that Romani people in particular should build a proposed wall between Mexico and the USA. The ERTF condemns ideas that foster segregation and discrimination in any form.  full story