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Several non-governmental organizations are requesting political parties to not use the "pretext of aggressions" in the plenum of Chamber of Deputies in order to limit the debates' transparency and freedom of all citizens, including that of members of Parliament, to expressing themselves on the legislative process.
"We consider that the amendments proposed to the Regulation of Chamber of Deputies do not respond to the need of preventing violence in the Romanian Parliament. Moreso, members of Parliament seem to reduce transparency, freedom of speech and the right of access to information of public interest, under the pretext that it is tempering uncivil and violent populism, which the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) is promoting," ActiveWatch, the Center for Public Innovation, CeRe: Center of Resources for public participation, Spiritual Militia Association, Respiro Association and Association for Technology and Internet, said on Wednesday in a press release sent to AGERPRES.
The organizations are condemning the "shallowness" and "lack of proportionality" that stay at the very foundation of the draft law for the amendment and completion of the Regulation of the Chamber of Deputies, but highlights that they support "without reservation" the need to penalize violence and aggressiveness. According to the press release, this is done by "direct" measures, aimed against those who commit such deeds, and not through general measures, which penalize the right to freedom of expression of members of Parliament and that are aimed against all citizens.
In the organizations' opinion, the measures proposed, such as denying to film or broadcast live on the Internet, the public sessions in the Chamber of Deputies, denying to display banners in Parliament, do nothing but restrict the citizens' access to information of public interest regarding the Parliament's activity. Over time, the live broadcasts made during public session, in public institutions, were a source of information and led, many times, to increasing the transparency of institutions and sometimes even making elect officials accountable, the press release shows.
"In the attempt of disciplining the representatives of AUR in Parliament, politicians in power are sanctioning, indirectly and for an indefinite period, any citizen or member of the Parliament that wishes to express his/her disagreement, other than through the formal mechanisms that the members of Parliament do not answer to. Displaying printed messages, in the plenum, was used in the last years by PNL (National Liberal Party), PSD (Social Democratic Party), USR (Save Romania Union) and AUR. So, until recently, parliamentary parties considered this action as being in the spirit of freedom of expression and a form of manifesting opposition. In this context, we can suspect the proposal to change the Regulation of the Chamber of Deputies as being a form of hypocrisy," the organizations highlight.
