Czech media outlet puts unnecessary emphasis on ethnicity in reporting public transport incident

On Thursday 23 April, online news server iDNES.cz wrote about an incident that took place on 22 April on public transport in Jihlava using the headline "Gypsies fight on trolleybus". After the obcasnik.eu website drew attention to this interesting headline, the iDNES.cz editors quietly and rapidly erased the content.  

Online editorial systems create Internet addresses for articles from their headlines. That means the original headline for the article was indelibly captured in the original Internet address for the piece.

The current Internet link to the news item about a conflict on the Jihlava public transport system now has a neutral name, "Brawl on a trolleybus in Jihlava", and the article’s headline is "Passengers fight on trolleybus, police intervene". No trace of the original news item can now be found online.

A mention of the brawlers’ ethnicity remains only in a direct quote from the transportation dispatcher, who did not want to give his name to reporters. There is no mention as to why the editing changes and alteration of the piece occurred, but there is probably only one explanation for the original piece:  The editors who first released the "Gypsies" headline wanted to post a sensational news item, no matter the cost.