Czech Republic

Czech Interior Minister and President disagree about disinformation unit

16.1.2017 6:43 Czech President Miloš Zeman and Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) met last week but were unable to find a common position on the new unit that has been focused on fighting disinformation since the beginning of the year. Zeman is convinced the staffers of the new department are incapable of detecting actual disinformation.  full story

Romani family files complaint against Czech investigation of death

13.1.2017 17:13 The family of Miroslav Demeter, who died on 18 October 2016 at a pizzeria in the Czech town of Žatec under still-unclarified circumstances, has filed a complaint against the district State Prosecutor's Office in Louny. The bereaved are convinced, by the course of the investigation to date, that the police are not investigating the case thoroughly because the deceased was dependent on drugs.
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Czech historian gets death threats after saying migration is a natural phenomenon

13.1.2017 7:35 News server Lidovky.cz reports that Charles University's Faculty of Arts issued a statement on 10 January publicly backing one of its academics, Matěj Spurný, an historian and specialist in modern nationalism and the history of modern European dictatorships. He became the target of death threats and racist abuse on online social networks after giving an interview to Týden magazine about migration at the beginning of January.  full story

Carmen Russo: The Fight For a Better Future. Battling Racism in Czech Schools

12.1.2017 12:15 A small group of American interns at The New Presence office were exploring the answer to a seemingly difficult question: Why are some Czechs so outwardly racist?  full story

Czech Deputy Ombudsman: We cannot treat people as individuals

12.1.2017 7:44 "Human rights and security are communicating vessels. A person who is not secure is not free. The degree of danger that is now being felt in Europe must have an influence on how human rights are conceived of," the lawyer and Deputy Ombudsman Stanislav Křeček has said in an interview for the Czech magazine RESPEKT.  full story

Czech Republic: Investigation into Romani man's death continues as interethnic gulf widens

11.1.2017 7:13 Last fall was marked for thousands of Romani people in the Czech Republic by the mysterious, still-unclarified death of a young man, Miroslav Demeter, in a pizzeria in Žatec. During 20 demonstrations and memorial assemblies around the country and abroad, Romani people took to the streets with the aim of expressing their opinion that the case must be properly investigated.  full story

Albín Balát: The curious New Year's maneuvers of the Czech Police

10.1.2017 9:48 Recently photographs and video footage have been appearing on online social networking sites showing various interventions by the Czech Police. These amateur photos and recordings have been viewed several thousand times.  full story

Social housing law sparks dispute between ministers for ANO and Czech Social Democrats

10.1.2017 7:36 On 24 November 2016, the demolition of two dilapidated prefabricated apartment buildings at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech town of Most was begun in the presence of Czech Regional Development Minister Karla Šlechtová (ANO) (pictured above) and the Mayor of Most, Jan Paparega. The town is one of the successful applicants for subsidies from a program financing the demolition of decrepit buildings offered by the Regional Development Ministry.  full story

Poll shows 71 % of Czechs support adoption of a social housing law

9.1.2017 9:35 The Platform for Social Housing reports that most Czechs believe a law should exist establishing an obligation for municipalities to maintain a certain number of social apartments to offer to citizens in need of housing. Those are the findings of a representative public opinion poll implemented by the MEDIAN agency for the Association of the Child and Family and the Platform for Social Housing.  full story

Czech Republic: ARA ART launches campaign to support LGBT Roma

9.1.2017 8:32 The ARA ART organization has launched a campaign to support Romani gays and lesbians who face hateful, homophobic, racist or vulgar abuse. The association has published a brief video online in which Romani gays and lesbians talk about what it meant to them to come out about their sexual orientation.  full story

Commentary: Too soon to assess inclusive reforms in education

9.1.2017 7:57 The number of Romani pupils being educated with assessments of "mild mental disability" remains essentially the same this year as it did last year. Current data from the Czech Education Ministry basically confirm the previous findings from enrollments into first grade regarding the reassigment of children from the former "practical schools" into mainstream ones - namely, that no massive transfers of pupils have happened.  full story

Charter 77 veterans critique Czech Government for forgetting about human rights

9.1.2017 6:50

The signatories of the Charter 77 document gathered in Prague's Lucerna complex on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its creation Saturday, as did other dissidents who played a key role in its organization. The conference, called "The Charter through Its Own Eyes", was preceded by a celebration featuring not just recollections of the circumstances of the creation and operation of the opposition initiative, but also a critique of the current Czech Government as deviating away from an active defense of human rights abroad.

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Czech officials will not prosecute complaints that election advertisement was racist

7.1.2017 10:03 A campaign video produced by the TOP 09/ Live Brno (Žít Brno) ticket for use in last year's regional elections has been assessed by the Brno State Prosecutor as not racist. Czech Television reported the decision on 4 January, referencing Ivo Hahn, a spokeperson for the prosecutor's office.  full story

Czech Republic: Number of Romani pupils educated according to reduced standards is practically unchanged

6.1.2017 12:41 The number of Romani children educated according to reduced standards remains practically unchanged this school year compared to last, according to a report about the "qualified estimates" of the number of Romani children in the primary schools published yesterday by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. "In the primary schools, according to current estimates, 85.4 % of Romani pupils are being educated within the framework of the mainstream standards, 12.8 % of Romani pupils are being educated in programs designed for pupils with 'mild mental disability', and the remaining 1.8 % of Romani pupils are being educated according to the Framework Education Program for Special Primary School, designed for a more profound degree of mental disability," says a press release from the ministry.  full story

Documentary film "FC Roma" nominated for the Czech Film Critics' Award

6.1.2017 9:50 "FC Roma", a documentary film by Rozálie Kohoutová and Tomáš Bojar showing racial issues through the eyes of a football club comprised predominantly of Romani players competing in a district-level championship, has been nominated for the Czech Film Critics' Award for 2016. In the year 2014, some clubs did not want to play with the FC Roma club, but the situation has changed today and the team is no longer just winning through forfeiture.  full story

Firms support much-criticized Lidl chain with funny campaigns against racism in the Czech Republic

6.1.2017 8:56 Apparently few people in 21st-century Czech Republic anticipated what might happen when a chain store used a photograph of a black model in an advertising leaflet. Discussions have been unleased online in which the racist portion of Czech society's "decent consumer patriots" found it necessary to soothe their nerves, so irritated by looking at a dark-skinned model in a Czech (!) flier, by sending to the Lidl chain many calls for a boycott, insults, and vulgarities.  full story

New initiative challenges Czech Government to adopt social housing law by the end of the month

6.1.2017 7:26 Yesterday representatives of a new intiative called "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) organized a "happening" in front of the Office of the Government in Prague to challenge cabinet members to fulfill their campaign promise to adopt a law on social housing. The initiative wants the Government to do so by the end of January.
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Czech Republic: Romani musicians give benefit concert for families of girls killed in hit-and-run in England

6.1.2017 6:36 Today, 6 January, at the Arena Club in Děčín, Czech Republic, a concert will be given by Romani musicians and the profits will be donated to the families of the two girls who tragically died after a man driving a car ran into them as they were crossing the street in the English town of Oldham. One girl died on the spot and her cousin succumbed to her injuries in hospital.  full story

Analysis: What happened to the Czech social housing law?

5.1.2017 10:24 Reporter Saša Uhlová, writing in Deník Referendum, has provided us with a very open description of the state of preparations for the law on social housing in the Czech Republic. A so-called national-level "Social Housing Office" (Úřad pro sociální bydlení) has made it into the law just because local authorities are refusing to administer social housing.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister says he will shop at Lidl after racists criticize its use of a black model

5.1.2017 8:45 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka has expressed support through his Facebook profile for the Lidl chain of stores after a wave of hateful, racist reactions arose online in response to Lidl's use of a black male model to advertise their sports clothing collection. "I have decided to buy some new sports clothes at Lidl Czech Republic. Normally I don't follow flier events, but this time the advertisement rather caught my attention. :-) If I practice, maybe I'll run like Usain Bolt someday," the minister posted to his profile.  full story