Interviews

videoCzech amendment to school regulations is a step backward, actual needs of children to be ignored

5.12.2018 12:48  full story

Romani community member Olga Halušková has been guiding visitors through Czech castle Karlštejn for more than a decade

24.11.2018 11:27  full story

Czech principal says politicians forgot about her school after death threats were made against it last year

20.11.2018 7:32  full story

Czech Constitutional Court receives complaint about election campaign, proposals for "fertilization" of "gypsies" recur in local media discussion

12.11.2018 11:00  full story

Jana Horváthová: Affirmative action and inclusion will solve the situation of Roma in the Czech Republic

8.11.2018 8:59 "I was always crouching somewhere out of sight so nobody would start talking about 'gypsies', or about the Holomeks, so that nobody would discover my roots. I was faint-hearted, mixed up. Once I accepted my Romani identity, if was as if I could suddenly stand up straight. All of a sudden you can breathe freely, without constantly anticipating that somebody is about to cause you harm. You begin to live in a better way - although I do not always openly tell people that I am a Romani woman," Jana Horváthová, the director of the Museum of Romani Culture who is an ethnographer, historian, and museologist, says in an extensive interview for Vlasta magazine (issue number 44/2018).  full story

Monika Mihaličková: Czech President should take a look in the mirror and give himself a slap - "gypsy" is an insulting term

7.11.2018 15:59 "I do not perceive myself to be an elite Romani person," says Monika Mihaličková in an interview with the journalist Jindřich Šídlo for news server Seznam. The former MP in the Czech Chamber of Deputies is currently working for the ROMEA organization on a program that supports Romani students.  full story

Local Romani assembly member in Czech town seeks re-election, recommends running to others

29.9.2018 12:23 Citizens of the Czech Republic will vote for new local assembly members next weekend (5 and 6 October 2018). News server Romea.cz has learned that at least 170 Romani candidates are running locally this year and, if elected, will be able to change the hand that is dealt at the city or municipal level.  full story

Robin Stria, 7th place candidate for the Greens, Brno-střed: The biggest problem in the Czech Republic is housing

27.9.2018 7:29 More than 160 Romani candidates are running in this year's local elections on 5 and 6 October. News server Romea.cz is presenting interviews with those we believe have the biggest chance of being elected who are listed in top positions on the candidate lists of registered political parties and movements.  full story

Roman Bílý: Decisions are made about Roma without us, that's why we are running for office

21.9.2018 7:39 More than 150 Romani candidates are running in the local elections on 5 and 6 October. News server Romea.cz is profiling those whom we believe have the biggest chance of success because they are running in leading spots on the candidate lists of registered movements and political parties.  full story

Ján Bajger: Roma in the Czech Republic don't vote because they underestimate themselves

20.9.2018 8:50 More than 150 Romani candidates are running in the local elections on 5 and 6 October. News server Romea.cz is profiling those whom we believe have the biggest chance of success because they are running in leading spots on the candidate lists of registered movements and political parties.  full story

Romani Rose: Society must condemn antigypsyism just as it condemns antisemitism

13.9.2018 11:09 Romani Rose comes from a well-respected Sinti family in Germany. During the Second World War, 13 of his relatives died in the concentration camps and others survived forced labor, imprisonment, life in illegality and being subjected to medical experiments, later giving testimony about their suffering.  full story

Independent Romani candidate collecting signatures to run for Czech Senate

23.7.2018 7:26 Petr Jano wants to become a senator representing the district of Chomutov. Like all other independent candidates, he needs to collect 1 000 petition signatures by 31 July 2018 to qualify for applying to run on the ballot.  full story

Young Czech journalist: School didn't teach me not to generalize, I had to learn that on my own

22.7.2018 13:10 Jakub Čech seems to be the incarnation of an "old soul" in the body of a teenager. Many people admire him for the constancy and toughness with which he has, since primary school, been fighting a dysfunctional or malfunctioning state administration, while others find him annoying.  full story

Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner says she will criticize politicians who are racist and resign rather than be censored

20.7.2018 14:39 Speaking in an interview for ROMEA TV, the newly-appointed Czech Government Commissioner for Human Rights, Martina Štěpánková, who answers directly to Czech
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the head of the ANO movement, said that "Politicians create the climate in society to a significant degree. For that reason it is very important for many more politicians here to condemn racism and discrimination."  full story

Edita Stejskalová: OSCE should send observer missions to Ukraine regarding pogroms against Roma and monitor the police investigation

11.7.2018 9:28 Speaking on Slovak Radio's "Romani Word" (Rómské slovo) program, political scientist Edita Stejskalová said she believes the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should take action regarding the recent fatal attacks against Romani people in Ukraine by creating an observer mission to monitor the investigation of the recent pogroms against Roma there. Stejskalová reminded listeners that from 2008-2009 such attacks against Roma were perpetrated in Hungary, that police in Slovakia have attacked Romani settlements in similar ways, and that a similar neo-Nazi arson attack in the Czech Republic led to the severe burning of a Romani child, Natálka.  full story

Jan Cibrik explains his collaboration with Czech city officials who are so harsh about impoverished Roma

9.7.2018 20:36 The crisis in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem that broke out in connection with the closing of two residential hotels seems to have been smoothed over for now. Thanks to enormous efforts primarily by the Deputy Mayor of one of the centrally-located municipal departments, Karel Karika, most of the people living in the closing facility in that municipality managed to find new housing, while about 25 people from the other facility have been provided temporary shelter by the city in the gym of a school in the excluded Předlice neighborhood.  full story

Czech Government revives position of Human Rights Commissioner

8.7.2018 9:04 Speaking in an interview for Czech Television on 28 June, Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Krčál said the Government had approved Martina Štěpánková for the reinstated position of Human Rights Commissioner. Prior to the abolition of the post of Human Rights Minister and the allocation of the human rights agenda to the Justice Ministry at the end of 2017, she had been the Deputy Human Rights Minister.  full story

Ukraine: Recent pogroms against Roma costing lives around the country

6.7.2018 7:07 Michael Beníšek, a university instructor and Romani Studies scholar who lectures at Charles University in Prague reports from the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod that "Nationalism is generally growing in Ukraine. This is partially connected with the war in eastern Ukraine, which has brought about an increase of nationalist passions. Everywhere in the streets here, for example, you can see signs reading 'Glory to the nation!' on the streets, on lampposts - I don't recall seeing that kind of thing in Transcarpathia before."  full story

Austria: Romani Artists Telling Stories of Resistance, Not Victimhood

2.6.2018 19:44 I first heard about Mindj Panther, two Roma sisters and actresses who act, rap, and make political art interventions, in 2014, during a trip to Vienna where I was performing. I was about to create my Roma feminist theatre company Giuvlipen in Bucharest, Romania and I was amazed to discover that something similar already existed in Austria.  full story

Czech-Romani actor Jan Cina: People should be judged by how they do what they do, not by labels

2.6.2018 17:53 Jan Cina is an actor, moderator and singer from a Czech-Romani family. News server Romea.cz is interviewing him as part of its series on Romani identity, during which the concepts of "Romipen" and "Czechipen" - Czech identity - have been developed.  full story