ROMEA, o. s. calls on Mayor Řápková to publicly apologize

ROMEA, o.s. takes great exception to the recent statement by Mayor of Chomutov Ivana Řápková that the Romea.cz news server is connected to threats against her and her family. The mayor has maligned the organization by claiming its news server has been provoking a hate campaign against her (see the ČTK reporting of 17.9.2009).

In her remarks, Řápková emphasizes that threats against her are common on discussion servers and gives Romea.cz as an example. “I would like to draw the attention of these Roma organizations to the fact that we do not differentiate among people according to their skin color, but according to their indebtedness, let the chips fall where they may. Provoking a hate campaign in such a case is completely inappropriate,” the ČTK report quotes her as saying.

Romea.cz has been in existence since 2003. In addition to its online news service, the server makes it possible for readers to interactively discuss with one another in the online space beneath each article. Moderation of these discussions is governed by the same rules as on all other such servers; the rules are clearly available on the website.

During its seven years of existence, ROMEA, o.s. has done its best to help Roma integrate into society (for example, by running educational projects, campaigns to support Roma employment, bone marrow donation drives, etc.) and to improve the co-existence of the majority society and minorities. We believe the repeated attacks on our organization by Ms Řápková in the media (first in the daily Právo, and now through the ČTK agency) are due to the fact that we have recently published investigative reports about František Kolář, a supporter of the mayor. We also reported on Chomutov’s unauthorized handover to the media of live video recordings that were made during the confiscation of welfare recipients’ benefits on the premises of the town hall. Chomutov has since been fined for supplying that footage to the press.

Romea.cz is an objective news server and always publishes information in accordance with the principle of balanced reporting, including in the matter of the collections performed by the town of Chomutov. The statements by Mayor Řápková quoted above are completely irresponsible, subjective claims which do serious harm to the good name of the Romea.cz news server.

ROMEA, o.s. calls on Mayor Řápková to publicly apologize for her remarks by expressly stating that Romea.cz has never threatened and is not threatening her or her family, and that the texts published on the Romea.cz server contain no such threats or indications that a hate campaign against her is being provoked. We believe Madame Mayor will do her best to clear the reputation of the Romea.cz news server and will recognize that her slanderous statements harm its reputation for no good reason whatsoever.