The situation of the media in Romania is not very rosy and there is a lot of room for improvement, and Romania should show progress from this point of view in this year's rule of law report, the vice-president of the European Commission for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, said on Wednesday evening, for AGERPRES, during an interview organized in Brussels by European Newsroom for the agencies participating in this project.
The European Commission's 2022 rule of law report states that the media in Romania is facing problems such as the fact that "transparency on media ownership continues to be incomplete" and the worsening of the situation regarding threats, cases of harassment and violence against journalists.
Asked if the new legislative instruments proposed by the European Commission last year - such as the EU anti-SLAPP Directive and the European Media Freedom Act - and currently being adopted at the European level are sufficient to address these issues, Vera Jourova answered in the affirmative, stating at the same time that she expects more from Romania until then.
"They are addressed in the law, but of course, I would like these issues to be addressed in real life. Romania still has space to do something without being pushed by the EU law. I was to the country and I want to come again because of the judiciary matters and, of course, it is in Romania's interest to also show some progress in the rule of law report in July compared to the one from July 2022", said the vice-president of the European Commission for values and transparency.
"We will objectively assess the situation. I spoke with journalists from Romania, I discussed with the legal regulator, the situation there is not very rosy and there is a lot of room for improvement", added Vera Jourova.
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