Release of the FreeEx Report - Freedom of the Press in Romania - 3rd of May 2010
On the World Press Freedom Day, ActiveWatch - Media Monitoring Agency has released its 11th annual Report on Freedom of the Press in Romania.
The Freedom of Expression Report can be read here.
In 2009, the most important events with an impact over the freedom of speech were the following:
· The economic crisis took to the dismissal of 3.000 journalists, the shutdown of tens of publications and the collapse of the incomes achieved from advertising, which on the whole made mass media vulnerable to the political and economic pressures.
· President Traian Băsescu waged a campaign to discredit the journalists working in large press groups.
· The press groups employers proved to be engaged in supporting one or another of the presidential candidates; they carried their own options in the editorial policies of their newspapers, made obedient persons most publicly visible and appointed such persons in executive positions. Many journalists did not resist the pressure, offered biased reports to the public and, therefore, committed serious ethical deviations.
· Such deviations and the lack of objectivity diminished the public’s trust in the press and, in some cases, contributed to the collapse of the press run for certain publications, or even to the shutdown of others.
· The control of politicians over mass-media institutions became powerful again, by means of advertising contracts. Particular cases of purchasing favourable news with public funds were disclosed to the public. This phenomenon was more obvious in the local press, where many of the newspapers that were not shut down due to the economic crisis still depend on the money obtained from such contracts.
· The aggressions and threats addressed to journalists continued, without the responsible people being punished or publicly sanctioned.
· The local authorities restrained the right to hold public meetings and banned events such as exhibitions, concerts and conferences, making value judgments upon them.
· The central authorities promoted several legislative initiatives with a negative impact over the freedom of speech: the new civil and criminal codes, amendments brought to the law on computer delinquency, the law on the retention of the public communications data, the public acquisitions law a.s.o.
· The public television was still vulnerable to political pressures. In 2009, more than ever there have been public alarm signals pointed out by the journalists of the Romanian Television Society (SRTv).
· The journalists were still issued criminal sentences for defamation. The Romanian State lost several cases before ECHR, which involved the journalists’ freedom of speech.
· A journalist accused of blackmail was temporarily forbidden to practise his profession.
· Some steps were taken to self-regulate the profession of journalist, by adopting the Sole Code of Ethics, initiated by the Convention of Media Organizations, and of the Media Committee, initiated by the Romanian Press Club.
The report was released during the CONVENTION OF THE MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS meeting in Bucharest. The "Current trends and challenges in the Romanian Media Bucharest" Conference is organized by ActiveWatch - Media Monitoring Agency, Center for Independent Journalism and Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The agenda of the event can be found here.
The event is supported by the:
CEE Trust – Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Media Self-Regulation at Work program
Open Society Justice Initiative - New York
During the event two other important reports were released:
- The Report on the public money advertising;
- the Report on Perceptions and Projections on the Development of the Online Media in Romania.
Please check www.cij.ro for details.