Internet

Czech play focuses on hateful commentaries posted to Internet discussions - #nejsemrasista_ale

25.5.2018 18:44 The Divadlo Petra Bezruče theater in Ostrava, Czech Republic has premiered an original production entitled #nejsemrasista_ale ("#I'm not a racist, but..."), directed by Braňo Holiček. The play about anonymous opinions on the Internet that frequently mask emotions of fear and hatred premiered on 18 May.  full story

videoNorway: Romani online television channel "Nevimos Norvego" to collaborate with ROMEA TV

27.2.2018 7:08 In Norway the first Romani online television programming began at the end of January of this year with an online channel called Nevimos Norvego, and the Czech Republic's ROMEA TV online program, which was created in 2002 as the first Romani online television channel, will soon contribute to Nevimos Norvego's broadcasts. The Norwegian producers will publish articles, photos of events, and brief video reports on a daily basis and will broadcast longer video programs once a month focused on subjects connected with the Romani community in Norway.  full story

Austria: First newborn of the year has become a target of hateful commentary

10.1.2018 11:29 The Austrian daily Heute reports that when Alper and Naime Tamga welcomed their newborn daughter Asel into the world on New Year's Day, she was the country's very first newborn of 2018. Instead of congratulations, however, hateful comments were posted to social networking sites after a photograph of the happy family was published.  full story

International Czech and Slovak Romani community rocked by mysterious death of nine-year-old girl in England

10.1.2018 10:16 Romani community members have been using Facebook to vigorously discuss the mysterious death of a nine-year-old girl named Janička who, on 2 January 2018, is said to have died of suffocation while playing in her room. Allegedly she remained lifeless for 40 minutes before medical aid was given to her.  full story

EU High Level Group on combating racism features Roma participants from Czech Republic, discusses Afrophobia

6.12.2017 11:46 On 5 December 2017 the European Union High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance convened and discussed the specific racism faced by people of African descent in the European Union. The topic is a big step towards recognizing the prevalence of Afrophobia in Europe and then acting to combat it.  full story

Czech racists threaten online to kill children because they are of Arab and Romani origin

6.11.2017 11:40 The Czech Government's HateFree Culture website is reporting that a wave of racist reactions has been prompted in the Czech-language Internet environment by a photo of first-graders from a primary school in Teplice that has been published by a local daily. The photograph and the names of the pupils and teachers was published last week on a nationalist website, and hundreds of Internet users have shared it from there, frequently with racist commentary.
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Charles University in Prague publishes online explanation of Romanes spelling rules

2.11.2017 11:38 The website of the Romani Studies Seminar at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, has published an online popularization of its explanation of the rules for orthography in the Romanes language. The Czech-language online guidelines are available to all editors, teachers, writers and anybody using written Romanes in the Czech and Slovak Republics.


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Czech Police charge man who urged daughter to practice beating Muslims or Romani people with a baseball bat

17.9.2017 17:51 Czech Police have charged a man who was filmed urging his young daughter to use a baseball bat to hit a pillow while imagining it was a "Muslim or a Gypsy". The video was first reported on by news server Romea.cz after a Facebook user nicknamed Olloph Samorost posted it to his profile at the beginning of August.  full story

USA: Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, offline after boycott

16.8.2017 15:10 The American website "Daily Stormer", which serves neo-Nazis, is no longer available online. Tech firms have boycotted providing it a domain.  full story

USA: Neo-Nazi website shut down after insulting Charlottesville murder victim

15.8.2017 11:53 The American neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer is experiencing problems after insulting the woman who was killed during Saturday's protests against the white racist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. GoDaddy, administrator of the web domain, has cancelled its contract and the Google firm subsequently cancelled its registration with them.  full story

videoCzech video goes viral of man telling girl to beat pillow with baseball bat and imagine it's a "Gypsy or a Muslim"

4.8.2017 13:32 A video has gone viral on the Facebook social networking site that shows a man who is most probably the father of a young girl whom he is encouraging to bash a pillow with a baseball bat and imagine it is a "Gypsy or a Muslim". The man is not seen in the video but his voice can be heard encouraging the child to use other vulgar terms such as "fuckers".   full story

Czech-language, racist website asked people to "Snap an immigrant!", Roma and tourists were in the photos

27.7.2017 19:55 "Have you encountered suspicious individuals or entire groups in your area who decidedly do not look like tourists from Africa or from countries known for their sand and sun? Do you not know to whom to turn with your concerns? You can post them here with your photographs of possible illegal migrants," read the Czech-language website Vyfoť-imigranta.cz ("Snap an immigrant!") - at least, it did until 24 July.

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Czech Police investigating video in which non-Romani bodybuilder threatens Roma in Chomutov with murder

27.6.2017 15:09 Police in Chomutov, Czech Republic have confirmed they have begun investigating the video recording in which the bodybuilder and Internet "celebrity" Filip Grznár comments on the recent murder of a Romani man there. "For the time being, an investigation is underway on suspicion of the crime of approving of a criminal act as per Section 365 Criminal Code, or perhaps incitement to hatred against a group of persons or restriction of their rights and freedoms as per Section 356 Criminal Code," police spokesperson Marie Pivková told news server Romea.cz yesterday.  full story

Czech prosecutor agrees with police that threat to burn down ROMEA is not a crime

12.6.2017 7:19 A threat to burn down an NGO is apparently not a crime in the Czech Republic. Police and one District State Prosecutor's Office don't see one such incident that way, at least.  full story

Finland investigating racist commentaries shared on Facebook by police officers

7.6.2017 10:51 Police officers in Finland may face criminal prosecution over racist commentaries about immigrants that they posted to a closed Facebook group after the Finnish investigative news server Long Play discovered the commentaries and reported on them. Czech news server denik.cz cites the BBC as reporting that the Finnish National Police Council has submitted material to the prosecutor on the issue.  full story

Julius Zajac: Czechs and Romani people don't like each other

5.6.2017 9:55 Czechs and Romani people have not liked each other for generations (generally speaking) and is is clear to see that future generations will not like each other either. While the situation is gradually improving, that fact is not visible, for the most part, because the tempo of improvement is too slow.  full story

Czech Republic: Yet another hoax hits senior citizens' inboxes, police need complaints to take action

1.6.2017 9:26 Purveyors of disinformation in the Czech Republic disseminate alarming and deceptive "news" - basically hoaxes - not just through obscure online servers, but also through mass e-mails. One such e-mail is currently filling up the inboxes mainly of senior citizens  full story

Slovakia: Romani youth successfully fundraises online for study trip to Japan

26.5.2017 9:47 Crowdsourcing to fund various activities these days are making many dreams come true. A 17-year-old Romani student from Slovakia was recently convinced of that when his successful collection online aided him in taking his dream trip across the ocean.  full story

EU ministers approve plan to suppress hate on the Internet

26.5.2017 7:40 Reuters reports that ministers of the EU Member States approved a plan on 23 May in Brussels which is meant to force the Facebook, Google and Twitter companies to more effectively eliminate hateful videos posted to their Internet platforms, the first legislative arrangements about such questions at EU level. Firms operating social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will have to take steps to eliminate videos that defend terrorism and engage in hate speech.  full story

videoVIDEO: Gala celebration for International Romani Day in Prague

9.4.2017 12:22 Prague's La Fabrika club was the location last night of a gala celebration for this year's International Romani Day that was streamed live online by Romea.cz. Czech and Romani circus artists and musicians performed together.  full story