President Klaus Iohannis believes that the decision adopted on Tuesday by the National Audiovisual Council of Romania (CNA) to temporary suspend the broadcast of a television station is based on political criteria, according to a release of the Presidential Administration.
The CNA made this decision in the case of Realitatea TV private television station for the manner in which it reflected the protest in Bucharest held on 10 August 2018 and the decision must be enforced on Thursday evening.
"Such an extreme sanction is very dangerous because it can create precedents and opens the path towards abuse of power over the mass media," the head of state showed.
According to President Iohannis, "in a rule of law, in which free speech is granted by the law and the Constitution, censure is unacceptable, all the more so since the decision belongs to a autonomous public institution, whose purpose is to protect the public interest."
"The political hijacking from this fundamental mission represents an act of sabotaging, precisely of the public interest to guarantee the plurality of opinions and approaches. The journalists shouldn't be punished by those holding the power because they have the courage to tell the truth," the release showed.
President Klaus Iohannis draws attention that the CNA shouldn't be used "as an instrument to silence mass media representative who are criticising the power."
"Ensuring the freedom of expression of all opinions makes the difference between a democracy and an autocracy. A country is truly democratic if it has the ability to protect the independence of the press and journalists must be aware of their fundamental mission and be united in terms of defending their right to express themselves freely," the release also mentions.
On Tuesday, Realitatea TV and Romania TV private television stations were sanctioned by the CNA for the manner in which presented the protest in Bucharest of 10 August 2018, thus, Realitatea TV private television station is forced to broadcast on Thursday, for 10 minutes, the text of the CNA decision and Romania TV private television station will have to pay a fine worth 15,000 lei.
Comentează