Czech media exaggerate reporting of incident in Jablonec nad Nisou

The Czech media are twisting the facts in their reporting of an incident that occurred at a shop in the town of Jablonec nad Nisou. Romani perpetrators were alleged to have attacked a sales clerk and racially insulted her while trashing a store. The Czech Police, however, say there was minimal damage caused and that no one reported racist insults were made during the incident.

The print version of the daily Mf DNES featured the headline “Another conflict: Roma attack a Vietnamese woman”, while their internet news server, iDNES.cz, ran the headline “Assailants destroy shop in Jablonec. Victimized sales clerk claims they were Romani”. The Czech Press Agency then took up the report and released it with this headline: “iDNES.cz: Young Roma in Jablonec raise hell in a Vietnamese shop.”

The original report, published on 2 November on the front page of Mf DNES, reads as follows: “There were curses, overturned shelves, broken beer bottles, even punches thrown.” The internet version of the article states: “..the rioters, whom the sales clerk said were Romani, smashed up the shelves and goods and also attacked a customer.”

The Czech Press Agency worked with the most essential information in the report as follows: “A small group of four juvenile Roma attacked the staff of a Vietnamese shop on Monday evening in Jablonec nad Nisou. The youths smashed up the shelves and goods and also attacked a customer.”

The Mf DNES report also states that the youths shouted “vulgar, even racist curses” at the sales clerk. The article does not specify what was actually said.

News server Romea.cz has learned from the Czech Police that four youths did visit the shop. Witnesses describe them as having been intoxicated. When the sales clerk asked them what they wanted, they responded with curses. They then got into a conflict with a customer and tore his sweater. Police spokesperson Ludmila Knopová said the property damaged during the incident was “almost zero, just some broken bottles,” and said she had no information that any racist slogans had been shouted.

News server Romea.cz contacted Lenka Brabencová, the author of the original article. She distanced herself from the headlines, saying she had not written them. She was unaware of what the actual property damage had been and said the sales clerk told her she had been racially insulted.

News server iDNES.cz editor Ondřej Kůs, who was responsible for creating the headlines, told news server Romea.cz that “headlines are always out of context and will never completely correspond to what happened.” In other words, when he writes that assailants “destroyed a shop”, it doesn’t mean they destroyed it completely, but that some damage was caused. When asked by news server Romea.cz whether he knew that actually no such damage had occurred, he replied that the article had not included claims that it had. Kůs said he believes individual reporters are responsible for the truthfulness of the information in each article and said he, as an editor, does not have time to verify all of the information published.