Prosecutor General's Office responds to allegations of 'censoring' releases of Judiciary Crime Investigation Section in Kovesi case

The Prosecutor General's Office posted on Saturday evening a message on its Facebook page explaining why personal data were removed from two press releases of the Judiciary Crime Investigation Section regarding the case in which former head of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi was prosecuted according to Agerpres.

The Judiciary Crime Investigation Section maintains to have sent two press releases to the Prosecutor General's Office, but only one was issued to the public, missing several pieces of information.

Thus, in the official press release issued by the Prosecutor General's Office, the name of Laura Codruta Kovesi does not appear, but it mentions a "former General Prosecutor of the PICCJ [Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. ed.n.]". Also, the initials D.M. And I.A. (Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI, officers), G.S.A (Ghita Sebastian) or "Galaxy (YR-TII) Otopeni - Jakarta Otopeni Charter flight" are missing.

In the post on Facebook, the Prosecutor General's Office explains that issuing press releases must comply with the domestic legal provisions on the presumption of innocence and the non-public nature of criminal prosecution, as well as with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

"Taking note of certain affirmations used in articles that have appeared in the media regarding the 'censorship' of a press release of the Judiciary Crime Investigation Section, the public communication and public relations office is entitled to bring the following to the public opinion's attention. In compliance with Article 3 of Law 544/2001 on the free access to information of public interest: 'The public authorities and public institutions shall ensure the access to the public interest information, either on their own or on request, through the public relations department or the person designated for this purpose.'Therefore, the issuance of press releases is a task of the public communication and public relations office, which must be carried out in compliance with all the relevant legal provisions," says the Prosecutor General's Office.

The Prosecutor General's Office mentions that the Public Ministry's communication practice is in line with the new legal requirements regarding the protection of personal data, the presumption of innocence, the non-public character of the criminal prosecution, following the example of other European states and having in view legislative acts applicable to Romania: the general Regulation on data protection - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and the repealing of Directive 95/46/EC; Directive (EU) 2016/343 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the strengthening of certain aspects of the presumption of innocence.

The EU Directive guarantees that public authorities and judicial decisions cannot make any public reference to the guilt of a person before it is proved.

The Prosecutor General's Office also invokes domestic law, with well-established jurisprudence.

The Prosecutor General's Office also explains that the option of abbreviations in the form of acronyms may indirectly lead to the identification of the person.

"As a consequence, the persons and public authorities holding such information are responsible for their protection, they are compelled to observe the legislative framework in force which requires them to protect the information belonging to the mentioned categories. These arguments are resumed and are also to be found in the reasons of the Constitutional Court's decision No. 633/12 October 2018. The jurisprudence also outlined that abbreviation in the form of an acronym does not meet the objective of effective anonymization, since the acronym, which is likely to lead indirectly to the identification of the person, is information about the personal data. We draw attention to the fact that providing information other than within a legal framework is likely to prejudice the finding of justice and the rights of individuals involved in any way in a criminal proceeding, as well as to question the impartiality with which the criminal investigations are being conducted," the Prosecutor General's office further says.