Romania is yet another country in Central and Eastern Europe where media freedoms are gradually being eroded.
Having already written in this column about the somewhat questionable coverage of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, not to mention RTL’s high-profile dispute with the Hungarian government, several readers have now drawn my attention to the situation in Romania.
Without wishing to go too much into the politics involved, or indeed show preference to one faction or the other, here’s a little background. In early August, Dan Voiculescu, the founder of the Romanian Conservative Party and the Intact Media Group, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for alleged money laundering. At the same time, the building housing Antena 3, a highly popular news channel operated by the Intact Media Group, was seized by the authorities.
There is, as we say in English, “history” between Voiculescu and Romania’s President Traian Basescu, with the two having been political opponents for some time and Antena 3 regularly exposing corruption involving Basescu and his family. Many believe the sentence handed down to Voiculescu and action taken against Antena 3, which is affiliated to CNN, is a way of exacting revenge.
All this has not gone unnoticed outside the country. For instance, the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) has said that there is a general principle at stake, namely the protection of any licensed TV broadcaster from attempts to silence its journalists.
Given that Romania is about to hold presidential elections, there is a fear that Antena 3 will be unable to provide critical coverage of the elections.
This is still an ongoing situation, with Voiculescu having lodged an appeal against his sentence and the future of Antena 3 far from clear.
While it’s different to what’s happening in Hungary, Ukraine and Russia, there are parallels, the main one being the stifling of opposition voices.
We have of course been here before, pre-89, in Central and Eastern Europe. Maybe these things go in cycles, with the other extreme, interestingly just prior to the collapse of communism, being glasnost in Gorbachev’s 1980s Soviet Union.
Whatever the case, it’s certainly worrying.
