Politics intrusion within the media, at the "highest level"

The political intervention within the press has reached the highest levels so far - says a report on press freedom conducted by specialized agency ActiveWatch and published today.

The study also reveals that last year, the authorities and the politicians have tried to restrict and control the freedom of expression and access to public information through undemocratic laws.

"Mass-Media, more politicized than ever" - is the main conclusion of the report on press freedom in Romania in 2012, conducted by the Media Monitoring Active Watch.

The journalist, the target state intervention

The report states the fact that the journalist is the target of government intervention.

The study shows that last year the authorities and politicians have tried to restrict and control freedom of expression and access to public information through undemocratic laws.

The secret services infiltration within the media is another issue raised by Mircea Toma, the president of the Media Monitoring Agency Active Watch.

"We have drafted an amendment to a legislative initiative of MEP Renate Weber, who was a legislative initiative on media freedom in the EU. At this initiative we came up with an amendment demand to formulate a legal framework to ban services to most contaminated media life", said Mircea Toma.

Journalists assaulted by representatives of authorities

The report states that, last year, several journalists were assaulted by local authorities or state institutions.

Journalist Mihail Bumbes was one of them.

"March the 5th, last year, several officers of the IJP Arges went to my family home and intimidated my mother, saying that she must go to Pitesti to give statements about me, and if she won’t go, I'll suffer and so on.

As a result of these pressures, I made a criminal complaint and at the end of last year I got that resolution in which the prosecutor said that Arges IJ police have went to my parents’ home following a complaint made by SPP ", told Mihail Bumbes.

Representatives of the Media Monitoring Agency recommend to authorities and politicians to respect the mission of collecting and disseminating information and to respect journalists' right to freedom of expression.


Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University