Czech Republic

Chair of Prague DSSS celebrates ultra-right terrorist murdering woman in USA

16.8.2017 18:47 The chair of the Prague regional branch of the Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS), Jiří Petřivalský, has used his Facebook profile to praise the recent neo-Nazi terror attack in the USA. Speaking as a leader of the Czech ultra-right, he commented not just on the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, but also on the deaths of the police officers who died during a helicopter crash when responding to the riot by posting the "score" of "3:0".  full story

Czech court releases murder suspect from custody now that all witnesses to shooting of Romani man have been questioned

16.8.2017 12:21 On the afternoon of 14 August the gunman who shot a 34-year-old Romani man at a housing estate in Chomutov on 27 May was released from custody. Inhabitants of the housing estate are using online social networks to share the incorrect information that he has been acquitted.  full story

videoVIDEO: Interview with grandson of the Czechoslovak Romani partisan Josef Serinek

15.8.2017 16:08 A Romani hero of the WWII-era anti-Fascist resistance, the partisan Josef Serinek, was remembered at the end of July by those who attended a tree-planting ceremony in his honor in the Vysočina Region that was held at one of the places where he undertook his resistance work. The event was organized by the Black Partisan (Černý partyzán) initiative led by the former Green Party chair and current director of the Ashoka organization in the Czech Republic, Ondřej Liška, who invited Serinek's grandson Zdeněk to speak.  full story

Czech Republic: Assembly to honor the victim of the neo-Nazi terror attack in the USA

15.8.2017 12:31 About 100 people assembled on Monday evening near a small monument to those who fell during the liberation of Prague at the end of WWII in order to honor the memory of 32-year-old minority rights defender Heather Heyer, who died after being hit by a car driven by a neo-Nazi during Saturday's protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. James Alex Fields, age 20, drove the vehicle and has been charged with murdering Heyer and injuring 19 other people.  full story

Some Romani activists do not want future genocide memorial at Lety to be run by the Czech state

14.8.2017 18:05 Some representatives of the Romani community agree that the memorial to the Romani victims of the Holocaust at Lety u Písku should not be administered by the state. However, they do not yet have an idea about how the memorial site itself should look.  full story

Czech Police reconstruct murder of Romani man, shooter faces 20 years in prison if convicted

14.8.2017 12:25 Czech Police performed a reconstruction during the night of Friday 11 August of the May murder of a Romani man at a housing estate in the town of Chomutov. The re-enactment involved the 37-year-old man who has been accused of the murder, supervising State Prosecutor Vladimír Jan told the Czech News Agency.  full story

videoUnique Czechoslovak film from 1960 about the concentration camp for Roma at Lety screening on Romea.cz

13.8.2017 20:05 "Then they took the children away. They took them away to 'save' them. They took them to Auschwitz. They took them to a building with windows. They ordered them to strip and take their shoes off, and then, then nobody ever saw them again. Don’t forget, don’t forget about the children, about that little girl."  full story

Czech Police intervene as extremists, neo-Nazis and religious believers protest Prague Pride parade

13.8.2017 17:35 Prague Pride, the parade celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people (LGBT) marched through the center of Prague yesterday afternoon. Several religious believers protested against the event near the statue of St. Václav and approximately 40 extremists and neo-Nazis turned up on a nearby street.  full story

Czech broadcast authority: TV news misidentifying burkinis as regular clothes failed basic duty to viewers

12.8.2017 20:07 The Czech Council on Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) has launched an administrative proceedings with the commercial TV Prima station over its reportage entitled "Clothed Muslim women swim in pool". The station broadcast the report during its evening news program on 10 July and informed the public that Muslim women at Prague's Aquapalace Čestlice had gone swimming while dressed, i.e., in clothing that broke hygiene regulations, allegedly endangering other swimmers' health.  full story

videoExhibition called "Gays, don't touch the Roma flag!" opens for Prague Pride

12.8.2017 11:33 On Friday 11 August at 20:00 a vernissage for the exhibition entitled "Gays, don't touch the Roma flag!" ("Teplí, na romskou vlajku nesahat!") was held as part of the Prague Pride festival in the Phundrado Vudar Gallery. The ARA ART organization used the opportunity to respond to the homophobic posts that began to appear in the Czech-language online social media after a photograph was posted of Romani gays and lesbians holding the Romani flag.  full story

Czech Police meet with Romani recipient of MBE to compare experiences in working with the Romani community

11.8.2017 9:42 ROMACT, a program of the Council of Europe, organized a meeting in the Czech town of Litvínov yesterday between local police officers, crime prevention assistants, and social workers with a Romani police officer who is a recipient of an MBE in the United Kingdom, Petr Torák. Mayor Kamila Bláhová who welcomed the officer to the town hall after his travel from Great Britain.  full story

Prague LGBT Pride festival is underway, Roma organizing Hot Chocolate stage at the post-parade party

11.8.2017 8:17 On 7 August, the seventh annual Prague Pride festival celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) persons began with events and exhibitions. More than 100 cultural, discussion, social and sports events were on offer this week, and it will all culminate in the traditional Saturday march through the center of the Czech capital.  full story

Crime prevention assistants from Romani community prove valuable in Czech town

9.8.2017 12:04 The town of Česká Lípa has hired two more crime prevention assistants, raising the number aiding local patrol officers to four, two men and two women. Thanks to good experience with their work, the local council decided to double their numbers, but while last year the jobs were financed thanks to state subsidies, the expansion of the project will be paid from the municipality's own resources.  full story

videoCzech Culture Minister's statement on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

8.8.2017 8:25 The anniversary of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the unprecedented event of the murder of all prisoners of the so-called "Gypsy camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau on the night of 2 August and early morning of 3 August 1944, was marked this year by Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman through a video message. "We are remembering the victims of the murder of the Romani family camp at Auschwitz," he said, adding that this year he would not be able to attend commemorative events in the Czech Republic due to work obligations outside the country.  full story

Czech company accepts state offer to buy pig farm on Roma genocide site

7.8.2017 17:43 The AGPI company is accepting the Czech Government's offer to buy the pig farm in Lety u Písku that is standing on the site of the Protectorate-era concentration camp for Romani people there. Neither side is publicizing the price.
 full story

Czech Police investigating video of father encouraging his daughter to imagine she is beating "Gypsies"

5.8.2017 9:11 News server Aktuálně.cz has spoken with the man who made a video of himself encouraging his daughter to beat a pillow with a baseball bat while imagining she is beatng a "Gypsy" or a Muslim, an action he has told them he does not regret. After news server Romea.cz broke the news of the video going viral on Facebook, police have begun their investigation of the case.  full story

videoCzech video goes viral of man telling girl to beat pillow with baseball bat and imagine it's a "Gypsy or a Muslim"

4.8.2017 13:32 A video has gone viral on the Facebook social networking site that shows a man who is most probably the father of a young girl whom he is encouraging to bash a pillow with a baseball bat and imagine it is a "Gypsy or a Muslim". The man is not seen in the video but his voice can be heard encouraging the child to use other vulgar terms such as "fuckers".   full story

Czech prosecutor says death threats and racist abuse committed through Facebook not necessarily crimes

2.8.2017 9:32 The ROMEA organization filed more than 10 reports of suspected crimes at the beginning of this year against persons who used online social networks to post racist verbal attacks against Romani people and members of other minorities, including threatening them with physical destruction. The Prague 1 District State Prosecutor subsequently sent just four of those reports to the Prague 1 District Police Directorate for investigation.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani mother of quintuplets loses her appeal in suit over funds raised for her family

2.8.2017 6:45 The Czech News Agency reported yesterday that the mother of the first quintuplets ever born in the Czech Republic, Alexandra Kiňová, has not succeeded in suing the "Club of Twins and Higher Multiples" over the way that organization delivered money to her that had been collected for her children by means of a public fundraising drive. Yesterday an appeals court confirmed that it was rejecting her claims.  full story

Czech union demands severance pay for staff at pig farm closing on Roma genocide site, firm says employees are not members

1.8.2017 20:05 The Union of Agricultural and Food Workers in the Czech Republic is demanding the employer at the pig farm in Lety which may soon be sold pay severance equivalent to two years' salary if the state buys out the farm. The union believes financial compensation for the workers at Lety must be part of the contract on selling the farm.  full story