Minority Protection and Language Policy in the Czech Republic, by ...

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Minority Protection and Language Policy in the Czech Republic, by Carolin Zwilling4.2 Names and topographical signsAccording to §7 of the Minority Act the members of minorities are allowed to use their namesand surnames in their language. Since there are strict conditions determined by a special Acton registers, names and surnames 15 in practical terms only female citizen of the CzechRepublic or the parents of a female child under legal age can ask for the entry of anunchanged surname into a register, if they make an affidavit of their membership in anational minority. Although all representatives of national minorities basically embraced thisnew Act on Registers, they underline that practical problems are not sufficiently reflected.For instance, they criticize the administrative fee of 1,000 CZK 16 for the change of an entry,especially for seniors.In addition, the Minority Act stipulates that bilingual geographical names, as e.g. forcommunities, streets, public places, buildings of government bodies and territorial selfgoverningunits, can be used. 17 But in practice, as stated by the Government’s Report on theSituation of National Minorities from June 2002 18 , the right to inscribe communities, streetsand public places with names in the minority language has not been exercised yet. Thisarises probably from the fact that this right can be exercised only if 10% of the local citizensacknowledge membership in a national minority and 40% of adult citizens of them ask forthis by petition. In September 2003, the Polish-speaking minority living in the region ofSilesia started to collect signatures for bilingual signs. The largest town, called ÈeskýTìsín/Czeski Cieszyn, was divided into a Polish and a Czechoslovak part after the collapse ofthe Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. The percentage of the Polish-speaking citizensnowadays stands only at 16.1% based on the last census. Furthermore, they entered intonegotiations with the Czech Interior Ministry to introduce bilingual documents as e.g. birth,marriage and death certificates. 194.3 MediaBroadcasting media and language-related regulations have a strong impact on the life ofpersons belonging to minorities. 20 While members of minorities have freedom of access tothe media, at the same time, the broadcasters 21 have the right, guaranteed by law, tobroadcast their programmes freely and independently. Therefore, interference with thesebroadcasters is only permitted on the basis of the law and within its limits.The Law on Czech Television of 1991 22 (CT) states that among the main tasks of CT is thecreation and transmission of programmes and the provision of a balanced selection ofprogrammes to all sections of the population with regard to their ethnic or nationalbackground and national identity and the development of the cultural identity of thepopulation of the Czech Republic, including members of national minorities. But in practice,minority languages are still not used in public television. Because of the severe criticism byrepresentatives of national minorities, the Council of Government for National Minoritieslaunched initiatives for the improvement of co-operation between CT and national minorities.The Broadcasting Act on radio and television of 2001 23 deals with the rights and dutiesconcerning the programme content. As well as insisting in objective and balanced news andcurrent affairs programming, it imposes additional responsibilities on the statutorybroadcaster by requiring in Article 31(4) a preparation of a programme structure “so as toprovide, in its broadcasting, a well-balanced portfolio offered to all the population withrespect to their age, gender, color of the skin, faith, religion, political or other opinions,ethnic, national or social origin, and membership of a minority”. Nevertheless, minority15 Act N. 301/2001.16 $ 1=27 CZK ca. on March 16, 2004.17 § 29/2 of Act N. 1128/2000 Coll. on communities.18 At http://wtd.vlada.cz/files/rvk/rnm/zprava_mensiny_2001_en.pdf.19 For further information see.20 For general information and as an overview about all OSCE countries see the study commissioned bythe OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities on Minority-Language Related Broadcasting andLegislation in the OSCE, at .21 In December 2003, there is one national public television operator (with two channels), two privatetelevision operators, 12 regional television operators, 16 local television operators, 10 satellite operatorsand 11 cable operators.22 Law N. 483/1991 as subsequently amended by Law N. 39/2001, at .23 Law N. 231/2001, at .Noves SL. Revista de Sociolingüísticahttp://www.gencat.cat/llengua/novesAutumn 20044
Minority Protection and Language Policy in the Czech Republic, by Carolin Zwillinglanguages are used only in programmes prepared by minority editorial boards (German,Polish, Roma and Slovak).According to the Press Act of 2000 24 , members of minorities can exercise their right ondissemination and reception of information unlimitedly. As a consequence, own press by theorganizations of national minorities is one of the preferred activities for the development oftheir culture and their national identity. So many periodical and non-periodical papers arepublished, supported by subsidies from the State Budget.The Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting 25 is the administrative body supervisingthe observance of legislation regulating radio and television broadcasting and thus also thecomposition of programmes. In its Opinion on the Czech Republic 26 , the Council of EuropeAdvisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minoritiescriticizes this practice and recommends measures. In particular, they noted thedissatisfaction expressed by the small minorities represented in the Government’s Council forNational Minorities with regard to the time and length of programmes broadcasted inminority languages on the Czech radio.5. Minority EducationArticle 25 of the Charter provides for education in minority languages and the Minority Actguarantees the right to be educated in the minority language from nursery school levelthrough to secondary schools.For the practical application of the legal rules, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sportsestablished a Consultative Group of the Minister of Education for the Affairs of MinorityEducation whose members were recruited in 2001 from the representatives of Polish,German, Roma, Slovak, Hungarian and Ukrainian minorities living in the Czech Republic aswell as the Jewish community.Although the Minority Act does not give any minimum of threshold for minority childrennecessary to establish a class in the minority language, according to the Government’sReport 27 the education in minority languages within the system of state education is possibleonly in the case of more numerous minorities which allow a sufficient number of pupils intheir domicile. Therefore, this right is fully exercised only for the benefit of Polish children.The Polish national minority disposes of a network of schools in the districts Karviná andFrýdek-Místek which includes kindergartens, primary schools, grammar schools andsecondary modern schools with Polish as the only teaching language.The dispersed settlement complicates minority education for the small Bulgarian, Croatian,Ruthenian, Russian, Greek and Ukrainian minorities and even for the more numerousGerman, Hungarian, Roma and Slovak minorities. Thus the system of state educationsupports the education of members of the Polish, German and Roma minorities while othernational minorities are educated only within the framework of additional educationalprogrammes by means of grants for out-of-school activities. The representatives of theGerman minority acknowledge that the establishment of German schools is not realistic.Nevertheless, a part of their members have invoked the establishment of bilingual schools,with the predominance of German as teaching language.6. The Roma national minorityThe Roma minority holds an exceptional position within the general situation of nationalminorities in the Czech Republic. They were recognized as national minority for the first timeby the Constitution of 1993. Although Roma ethnicity was declared by 11,716 persons duringthe last census, it is well known that these data do not correspond to the real number ofRoma living in the Czech Republic. In general it is presumed that their number oscillatesbetween 150,000-200,000 persons. Of this number 20,000 are Vlax Roma whose culture andlanguage is substantially different. More than 95% of Roma moved to the Czech Republicfrom Slovakia after the Second World War or are descendants of these migrants. Experienceswith the persecution during the Fascist period and daily discrimination due to the aversion of24 Law N. 46/2000, at .25 For further information see .26 Adopted on 6 April 2001, at .27 See reference 17.Noves SL. Revista de Sociolingüísticahttp://www.gencat.cat/llengua/novesAutumn 20045
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