The disinformation pandemic: Who are the Czech anti-maskers , and could they seize power?
5.4.2021 9:14
A demonstration by the Czech anti-masker movement calling itself The Dog Has Died , 2021. (PHOTO: Petr Zewlakk Vrabec)
Disinformation is as old as civilization itself. It is an instrument of power and of warfare, and as human society develops and technology progresses, its importance keeps growing.
In our part of the world we can recall the Czechoslovak communist politician Vilém Nový who, after the death of Jan Palach by self-immolation in 1969, alleged that Palach did not burn to death but used so-called cold fire to fake the spectacle of his protest. Nový was sued for defamation, but the justice system in those days took the side of the communist regime, which means that defamatory rumor about Palach s suicide remains alive practically to this day.
Romea.cz
Prague Forum for Romani Histories: Joint commemoration of the Jewish and Romani victims of the Holocaust should inspire others
4.4.2021 10:08
Pražské fórum pro romské dějiny - PFRD) the joint commemoration of the Jewish and the Romani victims of the Holocaust should become an inspiration and a model for other initiatives, whether at the local or the state level. The PFRD is responding to the decision taken by the board of directors of the Institute of the Terezín Initiative to no longer read the names of Romani victims of racial persecution during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as part of the commemorative reading of names of the dead on Yom Hashoah.
Romea.cz
Terezín Initiative in Czech Republic does not want Romani names included in Shoah commemoration, director of its Institute disagrees
3.4.2021 18:52
The Yom Hashoah event, held throughout the Czech Republic, has involved people publicly reading the names of the Jewish and Romani victims of the Nazi concentration camps since 2010. (PHOTO: Romea.cz)
The board of directors of the Institute of the Terezín Initiative (ITI) in the Czech Republic has decided that this year s commemorative reading of the names of the dead on Yom Hashoah will not include the names of the Romani victims of racial persecution in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. However, the director of the ITI, Tereza Štěpková, disagrees with that decision and says the event, which falls on 8 April this year, will go ahead as planned and will read Holocaust victims names from the Romani community.
Czech lower house has approved moratorium on collections agents confiscating property in people s homes due to COVID-19
1.4.2021 6:13
Collections proceedings in the Czech Republic. (Collage: Romea.cz)
Despite the fact that the state of emergency in the Czech Republic has been ongoing and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has been seeking an extension of the law authorizing the state of emergency from Parliament, it was not until 24 March that the Chamber of Deputies re-approved a previous moratorium on collections agents confiscations of movable items according to the law on ameliorating the impacts of the novel coronavirus called Lex Covid Justice II, which was in effect from November 2020 to 31 January 2021. Czech MP Lukáš Kolářík (Pirates) had warned that since February, when the ban on confiscating movable assets had been lifted, persons in debt who are under collections proceedings have seen their property confiscated and sold.
Romea.cz
Czech TV finds MP is still a landlord trafficking in poverty, overcharging Romani tenants for squalid properties who have nowhere else to go
17.3.2021 10:07
Lubomír Volný (2021) (PHOTO: Czech Television, 168 hodin )
Czech MP Lubomír Volný is continuing to make money on the most impoverished Romani residents of the excluded locality in Ostrava-Přívoz where he owns two buildings that he is neglecting. Currently he has been drawing attention to himself by refusing to follow the rules in place during the pandemic and has become a star among those opposed to wearing facemasks - and paradoxically, many Romani men and women are praising him for that on social media.