Czech Republic: Girls invent story of assault by Roma, media must retract claims
The infamous "journalist" Jan Vraný, who is behind the E-mostecko local online news server, has attempted to incite his readers against Romani people once more. However, he has only partially succeeded this time.
After reporting that three non-Romani schoolgirls were attacked in a park in the town of Litvínov by local Romani girls, E-mostecko has had to retract its news item. Police rather quickly determined that the girls had completely fabricated the story.
What the trio claimed
in a park in Litvínov near the local polyclinic." He went on to report that "According to our findings the minors were attacked by local Romani girls."
Vraný naturally did not do what is expected of a professionally savvy journalist who honors the ethics of his profession – it never occurred to him to go to the Romani community to find out what they had to say or whether they might have witnessed the incident. His first article fulfilled its purpose, though, because the readers of news server E-mostecko began to curse the Roma in their online commentaries:
Lada Jechac: Since these were Roma (monkeys) it’s not talked about much. If whites had done this it would be everywhere.
Ivo Pospíšil: Yeah, when 20 blacks outnumber 2 whites. Otherwise they shit themselves. Cowardly disgusting stinkers who kiss the ass of our whole government and shit on thier own white nation. How long will we put up with this?
However, another online discussant was found this time who decided not to put with this racist invective:
Václav Rechtberger: Ivo Pospíšil – now that it’s been proven that those girls made it all up, will you write something offensive about them now, or are you just a fucked-up racist?
No assaults
By then police had issued their report in which they concluded that the girls had completedly fabricated the story of the assault for which E-mostecko had blamed Roma. Vraný had no choice but to report this development, which he did in a second article as follows:
"No brutal attack on three girls ever occurred at the partk in Litvínov at the start of January. Police officers have now shelved the case given the age of the supposedly ‘victimized’ schoolgirls because they made up the entire story… The incident was investigated by police after the schoolgirls were transferred to hospital for observation. They suffered no injuries and were released to go home after a couple of hours… The three girls wasted the time of police officers for several days, as well as the time of the detectives who took up the case. Several Litvínov residents even warned the editors right away that the incident might be fabricated and the girls’ story not based on the truth."
The girls certainly wasted police time. E-mostecko also spread unsubstantiated rumors about Romani girls.
How to produce hatred
This is far from the first time that this journalist has endeavored to prompt grudges against Roma. News server Romea.cz has previously reported on his manipulation of the facts in order to incite hatred of Romani people.
A previous article by Vraný full of disinformation, half-truths and lies covered the Romani people who were living after the floods in an evacuation center at a boarding school in the town of Vaňov, claiming that the Roma provided no aid to anyone else and were perpetually complaining about conditions there. Judging by the online discussion that took place beneath that article, he succeeded with his aim – there were many hateful responses from readers because many people shared a link to the article on Facebook.
In Romani households
When news server Romea.cz criticized police and social workers in Litvínov for taking Vraný and his camera with them during a monitoring of Romani households, we subsequently learned that this was far from the first time he had been invited to accompany them. "The E-mostecko news server houses many such videos filmed during the monitoring of Romani people by police as part of Litvínov’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy. That footage shows the private homes of families and behavior by police that borders on illegal or crosses the line entirely. The footage is always acquired by the ‘journalist’ who runs the news server and who is infamous for his extremely anti-Romani attitude and for sparking hatred against this minority," news server Romea.cz reported.
Footage from a police action during which officers fined Romani people at the Janov housing estate for their alleged violations of a municipal ordinance was also posted to the E-mostecko news server. As news server Romea.cz reported, the Romani residents of Janov were fined, for example, for sitting on the steps in front of apartment buildings; the behavior of the police has reportedly improved since news server Romea.cz published an article critical of this practice.
