Veronika Hlaváčová

Germany: Crime rates lowest for 25 years, apocalyptic visions of immigrant crime seem to have been exaggerated

29.4.2018 15:27 German newspaper Die Welt reports that recently published statistics for 2017 show that crime overall in Germany is at a record low - compared to 2016, the statistics demonstrate an overall decline of almost 10 %, the biggest in 25 years. The pessimistic predictions made by politicians who are opposed to receiving refugees, who have scared their constituents by predicting Germany would be devastated by crimes perpetrated by immigrants during the next few years, have apparently not come to pass.  full story

videoMEP Soraya Post for ROMEA TV: Antigypsyism exists everywhere in Europe

29.4.2018 8:51 According to Romani MEP Soraya Post, antigypsyism and discrimination against Romani people are a problem in every European country. In Sweden, where she comes from, the general living conditions for Romani people are, in her opinion, much better than in Bulgaria, Hungary or Romania.

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videoCzech MEP Zdechovský for ROMEA TV: Romani projects must have concrete outputs like the Romani scholarships do

29.4.2018 7:29 According to Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (Christian Democrats - KDU-ČSL) the main aim of the EU Roma Week, which began on the occasion of International Romani Day in Brussels, is to familiarize the larger public with the Romani community. "Many people have Romani neighbors, but they know nothing about Romani culture. I believe that's a shame," he said in an interview for the Romani internet television station ROMEA TV.  full story

videoEP Vice President Lívia Járóka for ROMEA TV: There are more Romani MEPs than people realize

28.4.2018 11:02 "Our biggest challenge is to keep our children in the best education," said Lívia Járóka, first-ever Roma Vice President of the European Parliament (EP), in an interview for the Roma internet television station ROMEA TV. Speaking in Brussels during EU Roma Week, the EP Vice President said that her biggest success to date has been the adoption of the European Union's Roma Strategy.

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videoRoma Week at the European Parliament: 40 young Roma discuss antigypsyism with MEPs

27.4.2018 8:07 Activists, experts, organizations working to combat persistent hatred of Romani people in Europe, and politicians have finished the third annual Roma Week at the European Parliament and other EU institutions, which began on 8 April 2018, International Romani Day. According to the organizers, the aim of Roma Week is to bring together Romani activists, experts and youth from the European states in order to contribute to developing a European strategy against antigypsyism and to discussing options for addressing the situation of Romani people throughout Europe.  full story

videoMichal Miko to the Czech Regional Development Minister: Live in a container yourself and then we'll see what you think of it

21.4.2018 11:51 The proposal of the Czech Regional Development Minister to build 55 000 "container" units of housing has outraged various civic activists. Michal Miko, project coordinator for the Slovo 21, z.s. NGO, has taken an unequivocally negative stance on the issue: "The fact that the Government wants to adopt a law making it possible to build 'container' apartment units is unacceptable to me as a civic activist."  full story

Brutal assailant attacks Romani woman in front of her children, Czech Police can't get their stories straight

23.3.2018 16:48

A brutal assailant attacked Lucie Badyová in front of her seven-year-old son and three-year-old daughter last Thursday afternoon on Kapitána Jaroše Street in the Czech town of Kadaň. He punched her, knocking her to the ground and continued his brutal assault as she was prone.

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Czech Justice Minister: State has no solution for social exclusion, Romani children not on an equal footing with others

13.3.2018 6:18 Speaking in an interview for ROMEA TV, Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán (ANO) said the state has not yet managed to introduce even a hint of a solution for addressing the problems that arise in socially excluded localities. "This is a big problem for the people living in such localities, but it is also a problem for those living nearby," he said.  full story

Czech MP spreads disinformation alleging that Florida school shooter was an Antifa member

21.2.2018 8:08 A week ago today, Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old racist, shot and killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, USA. Cruz attacked a school that he had been expelled from the year before for disciplinary reasons.  full story

Vice-chair of Czech lower house refuses to discuss Romani genocide with relative of victims live online

11.2.2018 19:47 The chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust, Čeněk Růžička, says the recent remarks by the vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura, about the concentration camp for Roma at Lety u Písku are outrageous and unacceptable to the relatives of the victims and survivors. He gave that assessment during a live online program on news server iDNES.cz, "Rozstřel" ("Shootout").  full story

First round of Czech presidential elections saw low turnout in socially excluded localities

23.1.2018 5:55 In socially excluded localities of the Czech Republic, which are predominantly inhabited by Romani people, very few people turned out to vote in the first round of the presidential elections. The lowest turnout was in Hrušov (Ostrava-Silesia), where no ballots were cast at all.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani Studies Seminar taking applications at Charles University

15.1.2018 13:41 While there are at least 10 million Romani people in Europe, there is just one university program in the Czech Republic focused on Romani art, culture, history and the Romanes language. The Romani Studies Seminar is offered by the Department of Central European Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague.  full story

UK: Police say there are no suspicious circumstances about death of young Romani girl in Sheffield

13.1.2018 13:08 According to the police command in South Yorkshire, England, which is investigating the death of a Romani girl named Janička in Sheffield, the circumstances of her death are not suspicious. The police have given a statement to news server Romea.cz about the case.  full story

Austria: First newborn of the year has become a target of hateful commentary

10.1.2018 11:29 The Austrian daily Heute reports that when Alper and Naime Tamga welcomed their newborn daughter Asel into the world on New Year's Day, she was the country's very first newborn of 2018. Instead of congratulations, however, hateful comments were posted to social networking sites after a photograph of the happy family was published.  full story

videoČeněk Růžička, recipient of the Alice G. Masaryk Award: Sobotka's Government was brave enough to come to terms with the Roma Holocaust

8.12.2017 15:23 On the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December), US Ambassador Stephen King gave the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust (VPORH), Čeněk Růžička, as his first official act in office. The Romea.cz server publishes Mr. Růžička's speech at the award ceremony.  full story

videoSPEECH: US Ambassador Stephen King on the 2017 Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award

8.12.2017 15:20 On the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December), US Ambassador Stephen King gave the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust (VPORH), Čeněk Růžička, as his first official act in office. Romea.cz publishes a U.S. Ambsassador´s speech for Human Rights Award Ceremony.  full story

Petition demands Czech President resign and SPD party be dissolved for supporting racism

3.12.2017 16:15 A former Czechoslovak soldier and member of the Romani community now living in Great Britain, Štefan Pongo, has initiated an online petition calling for the dissolution of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" party of Tomio Okamura (the SPD) and the resignation of Czech President Miloš Zeman. For now more than 100 people have signed on to it and other signatures are being added continually.
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Mário Bihári and Bachtale Apsa launch new video Saturday with concert in Prague

30.11.2017 10:24 On 2 December the Dlabačov cinema in Prague's Břevnov quarter will host the only concert this winter by Romani musician Mário Bihári and his band, Bachtale Apsa. As part of a special program of guest performers (such as Nicholas Arthofer on trumpet), the band will launch a video they filmed thanks to their friends from the "Unexcused Theater" ensemble (Neomluvené divadlo).  full story

Czech MP and educator "understands" why some are calling for murder of first-graders

11.11.2017 7:52 Speaking with the daily Týdeník Směr, Czech MP Tereza Hyťhová (Freedom and Direct Democracy - SPD), who is a pedagogue, has expressed understanding for the people who have posted death threats and other hateful commentaries recently to social networking sites beneath a photograph of a first grade class from the Prosetice quarter of Teplice. The children photographed are mostly of Arab, Romani or Vietnamese origin.

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"A Vanished World" exhibit on Wenceslas Square in the Czech capital for the next two weeks

1.11.2017 14:27 The travelling exhibition "A Vanished World" (Zaniklý svět), prepared by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (VPORH) about indigenous Czech Roma and Sinti, has returned to Prague. Through rare archival materials and photographs from the interwar period, the exhibit presents the lives of Roma and Sinti in the Czech lands prior to their imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.  full story