On 11 January, Pavel Pečinka, the former Editor-in-Chief of the Romano hangos periodical, wrote to Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman to say the publication had become a family business run in a non-transparent way with strange accounting practices and demanding an investigation. Several days ago the ministry undertook an audit and found no such problems at its editorial office.
News server Romea.cz reported on Pečinka’s letter and the responses to it from the publisher of the periodical, Karel Holomek, and his daughter, Museum of Romani Culture director Jana Horváthová. At the time, she wrote the following for news server Romea.cz: "Given that almost every sentence Pavel Pečínka has written about me is not based on the truth, I am convinced that this entire text, which I additionally believe shows signs of either a deeply unhappy or a psychopathic personality, is just an angry, subjective rant that has very little to do with the facts."
Today Horváthová had this to say: "Finally we have a response to the morbidly suspicious Mr Pečínka, the result of the audit of Romano hangos is: ‘Without findings’. What will happen now that the wolf has not been fed…? Does some other escapade await us? In a decent society at least an apology would be appropriate, even though given what Pavel Pečínka has done, an apology is hardly enough."
According to what Pečínka is writing on his Facebook profile, it seems more "escapades" are to come. He is insisting that the text of his "critical letter is neither exaggerated nor fabricated" and says he will not apologize.
On the contrary, on his profile he is now publishing the background materials he based his letter on. Pečinka writes: "This first text is comprised of scanned notes by the publisher of the newspaper, Karel Holomek, prior to one of our many meetings full of conflict, probably in the summer or fall of 2009. In them the publisher prepares in advance for what to say during the discussion and how to address my questions about criteria for compensation."
Pečinka does not highlight how he came by these notes – the atmosphere of his remarks is that of a spy film in which the editor hastily photocopied the publisher’s notes – and he does not reveal what is so extraordinary about someone preparing for such a discussion this way. It seems that Pečinka has no new material arguments to contribute to this dispute and is stuck at the level of settling his personal accounts.
We shall see what happens next. This end to the "Romano hangos scandal", of course, does not mean that a more general discussion of the purpose of the "Romani media", the relationship between "the majority" and the Romani culture, the communication between these two cultures, and whether policy is aware of the problems of this communication and is able to reflect on them.
News server Romea.cz has launched such a discussion in an interview with Roman Krištof, to which Holomek responded. This discussion is also relevant to the topic of the Czech Government Romani Integration Strategy.
