Speaking on Friday afternoon after casting his ballot, Czech President Miloš Zeman made remarks that insulted Romani people in the Czech Republic yet again, his second such remark that day and the third in 10 days. Remarking that "Nazism was a long time ago", he dismissed the 20th-century suffering of Romani people - which is the reason many Romani people today do not self-identify themselves as Romani to Czech state authorities during the census.

Yesterday at 14:00 polls closed in the Czech Republic after voters had the opportunity to choose their local assembly members and, in one-third of the country, 27 Senators. News server Romea.cz has followed the results in selected municipalities with larger numbers of Romani candidates who stood a reasonable chance of election.

Czech President Miloš Zeman is insisting on the accuracy of his remarks about unemployed Romani people. Responding to the hundreds of photographs posted to
Facebook by Romani people from their workplaces, Zeman said today that the initiative represented just one-tenth of the Romani population.

Czech President Zeman's antigypsyist remarks from last week continue to resonate at all levels of political life. MEP Soraya Post of Sweden has tweeted her support of the photo campaign initiated by Romani community member Štefan Pongo and the ROMEA organization in response to Zeman's remarks.

The modern hall of the library at the University of Warsaw is full; approximately 150 journalists from 28 countries are sitting here and their debate confirms that many of the problems both journalism and society are currently undergoing are similar whether one is the eastern or the western parts of Europe. The only Czech participant there is the HlídacíPes.org ("Watchdog") media outlet, a partner of the conference put together by the German organization "N-ost".

The "Freedom and Direct Democracy Movement of Tomio Okamura" (SPD) had been telling its followers to come to Náměstí Míru in Prague on 2 October for a campaign rally ahead of this weekend's elections. As it turns out, they were not able to assemble there.

The Facebook social networking site was flooded yesterday afternoon with hundreds of photos of Romani people at work, all uploaded in response to the insulting, racist remarks made by Czech President Miloš Zeman during a visit last week to the Olomouc Region, when he insinuated that the unemployed population of the community he was visiting was comprised of Romani people in particular. "We are no longer amused by the allegations that we don't work," Romani community member Štefan Pongo posted to Facebook.