This was disturbing to see (care of the BBC):

The Czech government has expressed outrage over the broadcast of an anti-Roma (Gypsy) campaign advert by a far-right group on national television.

The head of Czech Television, Jiri Janecek, said the National Party (NS) video would not be broadcast again.

Interior Minister Martin Pecina has said he is now seeking to ban the NS.

The NS advert spoke of “a final solution to the Gypsy issue” and carried the slogan “Stop Favouring Gypsies” over images of Roma.

It’s pretty unbelievable that this ad was even allowed to air on Czech Television. The article mentioned a feeble excuse from a CT spokesman that the station had no legal right to edit the contents of a party’s announcement. But any mention of a “final solution” must contradict Czech legislation preventing speech and actions that threaten a particular group of citizens. I haven’t read the Czech media’s coverage of the incident yet, but I hope they look into that issue.

By the way, good to hear Pecina’s talking about banning the party, but the last similar attempt–to ban the more powerful Workers’ Party–ended in embarrassment earlier this year. According to the weekly Respekt (see the TOL translation to be published this week), the Interior Ministry completely botched its preparation of the case against the Workers’ party, leaving the Supreme Administrative Court little choice but to reject the ban. (A party has evidently never been banned in the Czech Republic, so the courts are likely to be especially careful in such a move).

On the plus side, it’s inspiring to see new Prime Minister Fischer out in front with his comments about the incident (see the BBC article). In an interview with Respekt, he seemed to get the importance of taking a stand against anti-Roma sentiment, something rarely understood by his predecessors…