Czech tabloid seizes on critique of tv show view of Roma to stir up trouble

Director Filip Renč has allegedly begun responding with vulgar abuse to the rising criticism of his depictions of Romani people in the television serial "Sanitka 2" as completely racist and unrealistic. Attorney Klára Samková referred to Renč as an "idiot" in a post to her Facebook profile discussing the serial, and according to the editor of a Czech tabloid, Renč then called Samková a "gypsy cow". 

"Filip Renč is understandably an idiot, because the good old saying still applies:  If I don’t know something, I ask someone who does… He didn’t do even the minimum amount of work necessary to determine what a minimum of reality is – if reality is really what he is after… The gadje notions about Romani people presented in Sanitka, for example, would be funny if they didn’t present virtual reality as the actual state of affairs… As far as his critique goes, a response is useless because it won’t work," she said.

Samková also wrote the following recommendation on her Facebook page as to how Romani people should respond to the absurdities in the serial:  "One of my favorite billionaires once told me the following:  THE BEST REVENGE IS A GRANDIOSE SUCCESS… So, Roma people and their advocates:  Stop bitching and get to work! You have what it takes! Don’t respond to this piffle, keep working on your own concepts! (This, BTW, applies to Czechs too…)."   

Samková then published an e-mail on Facebook in which an editor from the tabloid magazine "Pestrý svět" ("Colorful World") asks for her opinion of the serial and alleges that the director has racially abused her. "What do you say to Mr Renč’s statement of just a few minutes ago, and I quote:  ‘If Ms Samková says I’m an idiot, then she’s a gypsy cow.’ As a lawyer, will you address this somehow?" reads the e-mail. 

Samková then wrote on her profile that she will not be taking any steps with respect to the alleged remark. "I did not witness Mr Renč making that remark, so I definitely will not address it. I recommend that he re-orient himself and start producing science fiction so his excessive imagination won’t bother anyone and he will avoid the danger of his creations being mistaken for reality," she posted to Facebook.