Média

videoRacists and populists will not stop us! ROMEA launches crowdfunding campaign to support news server Romea.cz

11.9.2018 7:54 The ROMEA organization and Karel Janeček's Endowment Fund (Nadační fond pomoci Karla Janečka) are launching a crowdfunding campaign to support the work of news server www.romea.cz. The campaign called "Romea.cz - Racists and populists will not stop us!" (Romea.cz - Rasisté ani populisté nás nezastaví!) was launched on 10 September and will run until 10 December 2018.  full story

Czech tabloid will not be inviting ultra-right party representatives to its online debates

15.8.2018 6:42 The daily Blesk tabloid has decided not to invite any politicians from the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party to its candidate debates prior to the autumn elections. After the 2017 elections, reporters from the publication were not given access to the party's events, so the move is one of retaliation.  full story

Czech Police refute rumors that defecation in public pool was done by Roma - defamatory article sparked a racist wave online

7.8.2018 9:51 A wave of insults, racist posts, and vulgarities against the entire Romani community was sparked at the beginning of last week by an untruthful article written by Jan Vraný for the JV Press server in the Czech Republic. In the article he alleged that a 12-year-old Romani boy was responsible for contaminating the Brná swimming pool in the town of Ústí nad Labem.
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Renata Berkyová: How a Czech gadjo from Reflex magazine couldn't help showing his racism

30.5.2018 12:40 The discussion of what words we are supposed to use to refer to people who are not Romani has apparently been underway since the term "Rom" became domesticated as part of Czech journalistic discourse. The Editor-in-Chief of Reflex magazine, Marek Stoniš, published a commentary on 24 May in which he objects to the term "non-Rom", specifically, the term "non-Romani children".  full story

Czech politician not to be compensated over nickname, courts say reasonable use of it is allowed

16.5.2018 19:23 Czech MP Tomio Okamura ("Freedom and Direct Democracy" - SPD), a vice-chair of the Czech lower house, has failed with his legal appeal over a dispute caused by the use of a nickname for him, "Pitomio" [loose translation - "Tomidiot"] by the Czech weekly magazine Reflex. Okamura appealed a previous court ruling that instructed the magazine to apologize to the politician for using the nickname in two articles in 2013 but did not award him compensation, and the judiciary has at a more general level admitted that it is possible to use the "Pitomio" nickname as part of justified criticism of the public figure.  full story

Czech Police arrest two Romani men for attack on police, confirm media exaggerated the incident

17.4.2018 6:32 Police have charged two men in connection with an assault committed against a police patrol in the town of Krupka (Teplice district). Teplice Police spokesperson Daniel Vítek informed the media of the charges on 13 April.  full story

Czech media again exaggerate assault incident, promote antigypsyist stereotypes

14.4.2018 19:00 Media in the Czech Republic keep reporting increasingly higher and higher numbers of Romani people who are alleged to have assaulted a police patrol in the town of Krupka. The incident happened Tuesday evening when a two-member patrol of a female and a male officer were addressing a traffic accident.  full story

Czech capital sees public discussion on future form and role of the Lety memorial to the genocide of Roma

3.3.2018 8:51 The Lety memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma could include a replica of an original barracks, a tree-lined avenue, or a burial mound with a cross - and one of the buildings from the pig farm that was built there after the Second World War might also be left standing. Those are just some of the ideas discussed yesterday during a public discussion about the possible future form and role of the Lety u Písku Memorial, called "Restoring Dignity to the Remembrance Site at Lety u Písku".  full story

Czech Museum of Romani Culture officially takes charge of memorial at Romani genocide site in Hodonín u Kunštátu

25.1.2018 7:40 Today the Museum of Romani Culture is scheduled to officially take over the grounds of the memorial at the Romani genocide site in Hodonín u Kunštátu from the Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs (ÚZSVM). The Museum will become the administrator of the entire site and will be in charge of running the memorial for the public, including building its exhibitions.  full story

Analysis: A propaganda war needs angry, defiant, disgusted, nerve-wracked people - and the Czech Republic qualifies

8.1.2018 18:12 The return to the self-serving lie about a Greater Russia is costing the Russians absolutely everything, including their self-respect. The idea that it is still possible to destroy everything gives them the strength to continue.  full story

Czech President says 90 % of "inadaptable citizens" are Romani

13.11.2017 9:03 According to Czech President Miloš Zeman, 90 % of what he called the country's "inadaptable citizens" are Romani and just 10 % are "white slobs". Zeman made his remarks on a program called "This Week with the President" (Týden s prezidentem), which is regularly broadcast by the Barrandov cable television station and moderated by the director of that station, Jaromír Soukup.  full story

Alica Sigmund Heráková responds to Czech daily about the word "gypsy": Yes, it is derogatory

20.9.2017 10:54 On Friday the Czech newspaper Mladá fronta DNES published a special insert on the use of capital and lower-case letters in the Czech language as part of its regular series on Czech grammar, and the autor included the word "gypsy" (cikán) as one of the examples. For the time being we will not discuss whether or not this word should be capitalized.  full story

videoRomani psychology student who is a ROMEA scholarship winner featured on Czech Television

8.9.2017 9:30 "Our parents never went to college, but I was told I would go to college by them at home from an early age," Roman Koky, a Romani student of psychology, says in a reportage produced by the "168 Hours" program on public broadcaster Czech Television. Along with his brother Michal, who is studying pharmacy, Roman Koky has attended a recent "Baruvas" ("We Are Growing") meeting of Romani high school and college scholarship recipients.
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Czech journalist reports on her experiences working minimum wage jobs, book and documentary film to follow

7.9.2017 9:12 Czech journalist Saša Uhlová has gone undercover to work in the laundry room of a hospital, in a poultry processing plant, as a cashier in a supermarket chain, in a factory producing electric razors, and in a waste sorting plant. She recorded her experiences using a hidden camera and kept a journal of her time on the job.  full story

Tomáš Bystrý began at ROMEA 15 years ago, today he decides what news Czech Radio will broadcast

5.9.2017 9:29 As of March of this year Tomáš Bystrý, an ambitious 28-year-old Romani man, has been working at Czech Radio in the very prestigious position of news editor. During a hot afternoon this past August we interviewed him about his new job and much more.  full story

Renata Berkyová for DVTV: Even the Czech President doesn't know how to honor the memory of Lety, the pig farm remains

30.7.2017 7:57 A recent edition of the Apel ("Appeal") program broadcast by the Czech Internet television station DVTV has been dedicated to the existence of the pig farm at Lety u Písku that stands at the location of a former concentration camp for Romani people. Renata Berkyová was featured and news server Romea.cz publishes her words in full translation here.  full story

USA: Petition to rename the "Gypsy" series warns of dangerous stereotypes

25.7.2017 5:49 "'Gypsy' is a racist slur against Romani people who have suffered from slavery and genocide and who have been targeted by the Nazis in World War II. [...] By keeping the name Netflix is normalizing the usage of a racist slur," reads an online petition that currently has more than 1 900 signatures.  full story

Czech online tabloids recycling long-debunked antigypsyist hoaxes alleging Roma get free transportation, washing machines

24.7.2017 7:11 An online hoax against Romani people in the Czech town of Most that is several years old and alleges that they are getting free public transport and that the town is paying for them to go to the spa or take taxis is once again spreading through the Czech-language Internet. Besides being currently shared on Czech-language social networks, the hoax was published by the news server Eportál on 18 July.  full story

Czech tabloid apologizes for fake news report claiming video from Chile was from Ostrava

24.7.2017 6:20 The Editor-in-Chief of the tabloid news server Expres.cz, Petr Konečný, apologized on 18 July for publishing an untrue news item about the theft of a television from a hospital waiting room. The tabloid alleged on 16 July that a video of such an incident in San Pedro de la Paz, Chile was from the Czech city of Ostrava.  full story

Czech tabloid fraudulently tells readers CCTV footage of theft in Chile was from Ostrava - antigypsyism is the response

18.7.2017 7:16 Czech online social networks are sharing video footage of a young man, accompanied by a woman with a pram and a small child, stealing a television set from the waiting room of a hospital. The video has been viewed more than one million times, and according to the accompanying comments, it is clear that the Czech Internet believes the people in the video are a family - and a Romani one.  full story