Top Czech Radio Roma reporter applies for asylum in Canada
On Wednesday it emerged that the head of Czech Radio’s Roma programming
Anna Poláková had applied for asylum in Canada. The reporter said that
she and her family could no longer cope with the constant attacks they
found themselves under, leading her employers, Czech Radio, to speak out
against rising levels of xenophobia in the Czech Republic.
In an email sent Tuesday, Anna Poláková said it had been a spate of
attacks upon her and her family which had led them to seek asylum in
Canada. In response to Mrs Poláková’s decision, her employer Czech
Radio issued a statement speaking out against ‘the radicalisation of
society’ which had led to their reporter’s departure. This is how Mrs
Poláková’s boss, Alexandr Pícha, reacted to the news:
“Mrs Poláková was a very nice person and I knew about the problem, and
I have to confess that I wasn’t surprised, because she explained to me
all of the problems in the past and I have to say that I was expecting
this.”
One of the biggest factors leading to Anna Poláková’s decision is
thought to have been the assault of her teenage son at the hands of four
skinheads. After he had recovered from the serious injuries inflicted,
Marek Polák described what happened on Czech Television:
“They were behind me and started to shout abuse like ‘gypsy! Today
you’re going to die! We’re going to kill you!’ I started to run away,
they caught me and started beating me up, luckily the police came along and
caught them doing this. I was taken to hospital where I stayed for about a
week. I had head injuries, I needed a couple of stitches and had bruises
all over. I thought I was going to die that evening, because it really
looked like it might end up that way.”
The four perpetrators were taken to court and ordered to pay damages. Only
two of them did, and then, according to Mrs Poláková’s employers, they
started harassing the family relentlessly for the money back. Alexandr
Pícha explains another incident which added to Mrs Poláková’s
frustration:
“The other situation which was very bad for her was the situation with
her daughter in kindergarten. Her daughter was harassed by small white
children when she ‘stole’ a toy, which is very usual in general for
children of any colour, she was called a robber and a thief by her
schoolmates who no longer spoke to her. So there were so many of these
small incidents which were very bitter.”
All this led to Anna Poláková taking six months unpaid leave from work
and boarding a plane with six relatives at the weekend not to return. Czech
Radio’s Roma broadcast ‘O Roma vakeren’ will continue to be aired on
Radiožurnál on Friday evenings at 20:00.
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