Czech Republic

Czech-language Internet again spreading hoax about "free medicine for Roma"

7.8.2016 13:46 The Czech-language Internet has once again begun spreading a hoax alleging that Romani people get medications or other goods for free in pharmacies. During the month of July, news server hoax.cz reported that this falsehood was one of the 10 most-widespread hoaxes making the rounds in Czech.  full story

Czech NGOs say leading politicians' anti-refugee remarks are dangerous and populist

6.8.2016 19:57 An association of NGOs aiding refugees in the Czech Republic objected yesterday to remarks made by politicians against refugees. The NGOs said the attitudes of rejection expressed by Czech Prime Minister Miloš Zeman, Czech Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democractic Party) against migration are dangerous and populist.  full story

Czech Republic: More proof that TV Prima manipulated its reporting about Romani people returning post-Brexit

6.8.2016 17:28 The Prima television channel in the Czech Republic is not content just to incite its viewers against refugees, but is also inciting them against Romani people, as news server Romea.cz recently reported. TV Prima reporter Kristýna Vedralová alleged in a recent report that "2 500 Romani problematic families" could soon return to the Czech Republic because Britain has begun to take their welfare benefits away.  full story

Czech Republic: Politician spreads hoax that Roma get washing machines for free

6.8.2016 9:33 Jiří Maria Sieber, who is running for Senate as a candidate for the Řád národa ("Order of the Nation") political movement, has launched a hoax on Czech-language Facebook alleging that Romani residents of Terezín are getting washing machines for free. Allegedly, all they have to do is go to the "welfare office", but they don't even bother to unwrap them, instead taking them straight to the pawn shop - and it doesn't matter to them that they only get one-fifth of the price, because they didn't buy them, the taxpayers allegedly did.  full story

Czech Education Ministry: Just 205 pupils transferring from "practical" to mainstream schools this fall

5.8.2016 19:40 The Czech Education Ministry announced today that, according to estimates provided by the Regional Authorities of the Czech Republic and based on an investigation performed in various schools, roughly 205 pupils are planning to stop attending "practical" primary schools and to start attending mainstream primary schools as a result of inclusion measures that take effect next month. The overall number of children enrolled in the "practical" schools, which are intended for children with "mild mental disability", is around 18 000 for the country as a whole.  full story

Commentary: How to demolish the pig farm at Lety?

5.8.2016 18:48 "Lety is a problem the resolution of which can naturally be postponed indefinitely. It is not known how much it will cost for the clean-up operation - and over the years that amount has loosely ranged from between roughly CZK 70 million (EUR 2.59 million) to a virtual billion crowns (EUR 37 million) - but it is certain that basically it will never be possible to properly 'calculate' it or compare it to anything that might placed on the table as a counter-argument that 'it would be better to spend that on XYZ' ", writes Czech journalist Jindřich Šídlo on news server iHNED.cz in response to remarks by Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman about resolving the problem of the industrial pig farm on the site of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety by Písek.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: Roma Holocaust survivors will use upcoming compensation for their funeral costs

5.8.2016 13:00 Yesterday the news server HlídacíPes.org reported on Germany's breakthrough decision, according to the Czech Foreign Ministry, to further compensate Romani people in the Czech Republic who are Holocaust survivors. Today HlídacíPes.org has published an interview on this and other issues with the President of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic, Čeněk Růžička.  full story

Czech Republic: White supremacist group launches "Anti-Multikulti Watch"

5.8.2016 12:13 In the era of online social networking it is easier than ever before to automatically collect and store data and to analyze the opinions, political convictions and values of large numbers of people simultaneously. Frequently this concerns numbers of people exponentially larger than those on the list of persons called the "Anti-Multikulti Watch" that is part of the racist website of the Czech-language White Media organization, an extremist website run anonymously from servers located outside the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic marks five years since the anti-Romani unrest in the Šluknov foothills

4.8.2016 14:17 Do you remember the summer of 2011, when the Czech Republic was shaken by anti-Roma unrest that seemed to come out of nowhere? "It's not against the Roma," the main
actors involved, who came from the ranks of local politicians, said at the time when asked to describe what was happening.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani football trainer keeps children in the ghettos away from drugs

4.8.2016 7:20 The road away from drugs and the ghetto leads through the football pitch. Lukáš Pulko of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, who has established the Mongaguá football team
together with Brazilian player Rodrigo Taverna, can confirm that.  full story

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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Czech Regional Development Minister: We're negotiating about the pig farm on the Roma Holocaust site, but don't ask for details

3.8.2016 17:15 Czech Regional Development Minister Karla Šlechtová (ANO) attended a commemorative ceremony yesterday at the site of the former so-called "Gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek and told the press that revealing details of the Government's negotiations to buy the pig farm located there could endanger the outcome of the agreement. She made the remarks in response to questions from journalists and in response to a prior statement by Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman.  full story

Czech religious representatives fly Roma flag in honor of Holocaust victims

3.8.2016 16:19 Yesterday in Prague the Roma flag was flown together with the flags of three religious societies in the Czech Republic in honor of the victims of the Roma Holocaust. From 2 August to 3 August 1944, almost 3 000 Roma and Sinti were murdered in the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and 2 August is therefore commemorated as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day throughout Europe.  full story

Czech Culture Minister says Govt will resolve pig farm on Roma Holocaust site by next fall

3.8.2016 8:27 Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats) is convinced that the current Government will manage to resolve the issue of the pig farm on the site of the former so-called "Gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek by the next elections. The minister made his remarks on the eve of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in an interview for Czech Radio.  full story

Czech Govt to open memorial at Hodonín camp next year honoring its WWII, post-war and Communist-era victims

3.8.2016 7:13 Construction work has finished on the memorial in Hodonín by Kunštát (Blansko district) that will tell the stories of the WWII-era transit camp there for Moravian Roma, the internment center there for the Germans expelled post-war, and the forced labor camp in operation there from the 1950s. The total cost for purchasing the campus, reconstructing it and creating the exhibitions is CZK 98 million (EUR 3.6 million).  full story

Czech Republic: Commemorations of Romani Holocaust victims tomorrow in Prague

1.8.2016 19:01 Prague-based Christian and Jewish organizations have prepared several commemorative events for tomorrow's International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day. The religious
groups plan to honor Roma Holocaust victims in several ways.  full story

Czech Roma to mark International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz memorial

1.8.2016 11:20 Tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 August, Roma people from all over Europe will mark International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the night of 2 August 1944 and into the early
morning hours of 3 August 1944, a total of 2 898 Sinti (German Roma) and Roma children, men and women were murdered in the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration and
extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.  full story

Czech-language disinformation websites spread pro-Kremlin propaganda, are anti-Romani and racist

31.7.2016 12:16 The organization European Values (Evropské hodnoty) says that an economic, media and political disinformation campaign has been underway in the Czech Republic for a long time that is part of the hybrid warfare being waged by the Russian Federation against Western democracies, and that the intensity of this propaganda significantly increased at the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. As part of its Kremlin Watch project, the organization has compiled a list of disinformation websites including the characteristics of their content and the authors they publish in order to help readers orient themselves in the pro-Kremlin scene.  full story

Czech MPs join platform against multiculturalism

31.7.2016 8:55 The Czech daily Právo reported on 29 July that Czech MP Zdeněk Soukup (ANO) has created a platform against multiculturalism. "Whoever identifies with our 10 commandments can become a member - if they can get over their fear. Some party secretariats view us with distrust," he told the paper.  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion says amendments to consumer loan law will help combat exclusion

30.7.2016 13:47 The recently-approved amendments to the law on consmer loans will transfer supervision of the market in non-bank loans to the Czech National Bank, will limit sanctions for non-payment, and will place greater emphasis on creditors' responsibilities when providing loans. One of the main anticipated benefits of the changes to aid with limiting the indebtedness of the socially vulnerable should be a significant reduction in the number of usurious companies providing credit.  full story