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News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Czech Republic: Racists spread false statistics about Roma, implying they are official

17 September 2013
2 minute read

The Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i.) is distancing itself from the falsified data about the Romani population in the Czech Republic now being spread through blogs and other media outlets. The data concerned did not originate with the Sociological Institute, nor was it produced by any other governmental or research organization in the Czech Republic.  

The source of the falsified data is a hoax that has been spreading online in Czech since at least 2004. In 2012 and again in September of this year, several Czech bloggers have published articles presenting statistics about the Romani population and attributing them to the Sociological Institute.

The data presented concern Romani marriage rates, living conditions, education, employment, crime rates and prostitution. The statistics they include are falsified and are not based on any research performed by any scientific institution.

"The real purpose of these texts is not to present real data, but to spark negative emotions against the Romani population. Our scientific institution thoroughly distances itself from these texts," said Tomáš Kostelecký, the director of the Sociological Institute. "We do not disaggregate any of the data we collect according to the categories of non-Romani or Romani."  

The falsified data disseminated by the bloggers are based on a hoax that probably began spreading in 2004 and which at first did not reference the Sociological Institute. Falsified statistics with reference to the institute have since been published in several online contributions, most recently this month when the insitute was referred to in blogs on iDNES.cz and Ostrava-Online.cz, as well as in the Náchodský Nečas newspaper.

News server Romea.cz contacted the editors of iDNES.cz and Ostrava-Online.cz with a request that they add a statement regarding these falsified data to the texts. Both editorial boards have done so.

Statement of the Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic on falsified data

Racists are using various methods to prove the validity of their discredited ideology, and unfortunately the name of our institution has been misappropriated for this purpose. A blogger on iDNES.cz has published a post in which he uses "data" allegedly provided by the Sociological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He does not give a source for the data, but contents himself merely with providing the information that he got it from the "Institute of Sociology Academy of Sciences Czech Republic". We hereby strongly protest that the Sociological Institute has no such "data" and we are convinced that such "data" is not being compiled in the Czech Republic by any research or state institutions. We are vocally distancing ourselves from the "data" in this article and we regret that a reference to our Institute was made in a text whose primary purpose is to disseminate hatred, not to present the empirical findings of sociology.

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