ROMANIA

Country Summary

The November election of opposition candidate Emil Constantinescu to the presidency had a nearly immediate effect on some Romanian media. About a week after Constantinescu’s election, for example, police dropped an ongoing investigation into vague charges against Costel Bobic, a reporter with the independent daily Ziua, who had written about government corruption.

The presidential campaign revealed a thriving media, which provided insightful reporting and analysis about all of the candidates. While the majority of Romanians watch the widely accessible Romanian state television, and half rely on the state station for radio news, private broadcasters’ audiences burgeoned during the campaign, especially in the larger cities, thanks to their comprehensive coverage of the candidates’ speeches and debates.

In May, threatening to suppress some of these independent news outlets, Adrian Nastase, the president of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, announced that the BBC coverage was unfairly favoring the opposition. Nastase proposed that the National Audiovisual Council “reconsider” the frequency allocations of those FM stations that broadcast the BBC. The threat generated much criticism from the international community, including CPJ, which appealed to Romanian authorities to allow stations to broadcast the BBC, and in the end, none of the stations lost its frequency.

Prior to the election, members of the ruling party had brought libel charges against independent newspapers voicing support for Constantinescu and the opposition party. At the close of the year, libel sentences against four such journalists remained unsettled. Two journalists in the city of Constanta lost their second appeal of libel convictions stemming from suits by former members of the city council. Their seven-month prison sentences and fines remained indefinitely suspended, however. Two other journalists, with Ziua, faced 12- and 14-month prison sentences for libel against former President Ion Iliescu. They are appealing their convictions, but a hearing date has not been set.

In October, after much debate and protest from opposition media, the Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies passed four amendments to sections of the Romanian penal code that affect freedom of the press. Articles 205, 206, 238, and 239 of the draft penal code allow for fines and imprisonment for those convicted for libel. After pressure from opposition media and protests from international organizations, including CPJ, the lawmakers dropped early versions of the amendments, which mandated heavy fines for journalists convicted under the legislation. The Constitutional Court of Romania was reviewing the legislation’s final draft at press time.

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