Concerns mounting over Romania’s press freedom record

On the eve of the scheduled 6 October release of
the Commission’s report on Romania, the EU has voiced “concern”
over Bucharest’s alleged attempts to muzzle the
press.

The EU has buttressed its criticism by pointing
to the resignation on 26 September of Cornel Nistorescu
from the post of editor of the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper.
Nistorescu claimed that his move was a result of government
pressure on the paper’s owners, the Swiss Ringier group.
According to journalists at the paper, the owners
instructed them to adapt political news in order to please
the government. Ringier has denied any interference in
editorial independence.

The Commission report, due out on 6
October, is expected to address problems concerning the
media. “Speaking about media freedom, there are grounds for
harsher notes in the 2004 EU report. Freedom of expression
got worse year by year,” Ioana Avadani, executive director
of the Centre for Independent Journalism in Bucharest told
EURACTIV.ro.

“Romania is a test case for the European
Union,” explained Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, president of the
Romanian Academic Society think-tank. “While Romanias
accession for 2007 seems a done deal, a report by the
European Parliament last spring warned that the country,
under the current political regime, risks stepping outside
the political norms and criteria set by the EU. As
pluralism in media and society comes under greater threat
the EU must act decisively to prevent the decision to
include Romania backfire on the Romanian democracy itself
and be interpreted as a free hand to the government and its
network of clients to infringe on media freedom,”
Mungiu-Pippidi said.

According to the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ), several journalists of
another Romanian paper, Romania Libera, have alleged that
the owner – Germany’s Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ)
– had started giving them “directions about what the
newspaper should write about, how should it write and who
should no longer be criticized”. “When outside political
interests start pulling editorial strings it can have
devastating consequences on quality and media pluralism,
commented the IFJ’s general secretary, Aidan White.

Meanwhile, the Romanian government has
adopted a new legislative package which renders freedom of
expression consistent with European standards. The
government has also approved a series of measures aimed at
creating a favourable economic environment for the media
and eliminating possible state control of the
press. 

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