Czech Republic

Stázka Brodníčková: I wouldn't have come this far without my foster mother

5.1.2017 7:12 This is the story of a girl in the Czech Republic named Stázka whose biological mother is Romani. In September last year she enrolled in the secondary school for pedagogy in Blansko.  full story

Czech academic and education official discuss qualified estimates of Romani pupils

4.1.2017 10:50 Speaking on the "Crossing the Line" (Přes čáru) program on the Radio Wave station of public broadcaster Czech Radio, Czech Deputy Education Minister Stanislav Štech has discussed the findings of last year's qualified estimates of the numbers of pupils of Romani origin in the Czech primary schools, numbers that are sometimes inaccurately referred to as a "head count". Anthropologist Dana Moree was also in the studio to analyze the problems of such a "head count" and the reasons for it.  full story

Germany: Green Party head criticizes approach taken by police in Cologne on New Year's Eve

4.1.2017 9:27 The chair of the German Green Party, Simone Peter, has criticized the approach taken by police in Cologne during New Year's Eve celebrations there, alleging that the officers were asking people to identify themselves based solely on their appearance and tweeted a term to describe persons from North Africa that could be perceived as insulting. Approximately 1 700 female and male police officers in Cologne oversaw the celebrations of the end of 2016, many more officers than were on duty at the end of 2015, when there were reports of women being assaulted and bothered en masse, predominantly by immigrants from North Africa.  full story

Czech Republic: Protest tomorrow about social housing law

4.1.2017 8:24 On Thursday, 5 January at 10 AM the "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) initiative will hold a "happening" and press conference in front of the Office of the Czech Government to officially launch their campaign for the adoption of a law on social housing. The initiative wants to remind the governing parties of the pledge they made in their program declaration to see through the adoption of such a law during their time in office.  full story

Singer Monika Bagárová on Romani identity: Nothing to be ashamed of

4.1.2017 6:44 On 2 January, Story magazine published an interview with 22-year-old Romani singer Monika Bagárová. The interview was conducted during the preparations for her performance during the opening of the Roma Spirit awards ceremony in the Czech Republic last month.  full story

videoRomani student Gabriela Janičová: My dream is to become a teacher

3.1.2017 8:15 Gabriela Janičová is a young student from the Josefov quarter of the town of Jaroměř, Czech Republic. She is studying at the Evangelical and Social Academy in Náchod and thanks to her excellent results there she has been granted a scholarship from the program for Romani high school and technical high school students provided by the organization ROMEA, o.p.s.  full story

Czech bank to donate almost two billion crowns to education through foundation

3.1.2017 7:51 The Česká spořitelna bank informed the Czech News Agency yesterday that the value of the passbook accounts held anonymously by it that were no longer legally required to be redeemable is CZK 1.78 billion (EUR 66 million) as of the end of 2016. A total of 2 456 000 deposits were not redeemed before the bank's deadline expired.  full story

Czech Center against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats will refute disinformation online

3.1.2017 6:39 On 1 January the Center against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats (Centrum proti terorismu a hybridním hrozbám) was created at the Czech Interior Ministry and will be involved in, among other things, combating domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda, especially online. Czech President Miloš Zeman said at the close of his 2016 Christmas message that he was concerned the Center would censor the Internet.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister to focus on buying pig farm on Romani Holocaust site and employment of ghetto residents in 2017

2.1.2017 9:54 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has said that he would like to focus on addressing the situation of people living in ghettos by increasing their employment rates and their options for resolving their indebtedness during 2017. By the time the elections take place this autumn he expects to have addressed the law on social enterprises and to have completed negotiations about buying the pig farm in Lety by Písek that stands on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people.
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2016 saw Czech President's convergence with China and with Trump

2.1.2017 7:26 The last year of Czech President Miloš Zeman's foreign policy agenda was characterized by further rapprochement with China, supporting US president-elect Donald Trump and fewer trips abroad than in past years. He did not avoid controversies, such as when he openly supported particular candidates running for president in both Austria and the USA.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani tenants at risk of eviction got their leases extended

31.12.2016 20:33 The mass eviction of tenants from seven apartment buildings in the Cejl Street area of Brno, which more than 110 families were in danger of at the end of this year, has been postponed. The owner of the properties, the Fidurock Brno company, has extended the tenants' leases and begun to negotiate payment plans with rent defaulters, the Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES reported yesterday.  full story

Czech artist writes a guide to the Brno "Bronx", says Romani people "uninterested" in education

27.12.2016 22:18 The Brno-based artist Kateřina Šedá and a team of collaborators have put together a "guide" to Brno's so-called "Bronx" neighborhood and she has given an interview to news server iDNES.cz in which she criticizes the life of Romani residents there. The artist is quoted as saying in the interview that local Romani people are not interested in education and that their children's aim in life is to draw unemployment benefit because that is what they see adults doing in their families.  full story

Czech President attacks some welfare recipients, rejects immigrants, says Interior Ministry is "censoring" the Internet

27.12.2016 19:51 Czech President Miloš Zeman has sent his traditional Christmas message from the presidential residence in Lány, expressing appreciation for the good state of the economy being reflected in Czechs' standard of living and criticizing low levels of public investment, alleging that subsidies for renewable energy and some welfare benefits are a drag on the economy. Zeman also rejected the Czech Republic voluntarily accepting immigrants, whom he believes could spawn terrorist attacks.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani community organizes Christmas party for children's home in Jihlava

23.12.2016 17:18 Romani community members from all over the Czech Republic have organized a Christmas party for the children in a Jihlava Children's Home, most of whom are also Romani. The idea of holding the party came from Robert Tonelli, who grew up in a Children's Home himself and wanted to make the children's Christmas holiday more pleasant, as well as to give them something from the heart.  full story

Czech court sentences Romani man to prison for racist abuse while mourning a relative's death

22.12.2016 4:34 The District Court in Louny has sentenced 41-year-old Miroslav Fedák to eight months in prison for defamation of a nation and race. During a commemoration of the young Romani man who died in a pizzeria in October, Fedák shouted racist, vulgar abuse.  full story

Czech presidential candidate said three years ago that Roma justifiably feel surrounded by barriers

21.12.2016 16:43 The following interview was conducted in 2013. Earlier this year Michal Horáček announced he will run for Czech President in 2018.  full story

Czech musician minimizes his neo-Nazi past, but there is proof of his present links to right-wing extremists

20.12.2016 21:24 In a recent interview with radio anchor Zuzana Bubílková, Tomáš Hnídek Ortel downplayed the political significance of his band, Ortel, more than once and was intentionally vague about his own long-ago past and the band's more recent associations. Ortel asserts that he has nothing to do with the neo-Nazi movement today.  full story

Czech Republic marks five years since the death of President Václav Havel

19.12.2016 0:53 Several events taking place around the Czech Republic today commemorated the death of Czech President Václav Havel five years ago. In Prague there will be readings from his plays, a requiem mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, and an evening march to Prague Castle.  full story

Czech Republic: Many Romani families being evicted by year-end

19.12.2016 0:05 Czech Radio and news server iDNES.cz report that in the Czech town of Broumov in the Náchod area roughly 20 socially vulnerable families are set to lose their housing. Their leases are expiring before year-end and the landlords will not extend them.  full story

Karel Holomek on the "social unconscious" and the Roma Spirit Awards

18.12.2016 22:04 This year's Roma Spirit Awards had to grapple with a lack of comprehension from an unanticipated party: From Romani people themselves. I have done my best to grasp what has happened and it took me a long time before I understood it.  full story