On Thursday, the Senate held a debate on press freedom. The debate was attended by the Antena 3 representatives , who denounced the state abuses against media outlets.
"Perhaps we are not the only ones who have gone through this. I thought perhaps this is the society we live in. These have to be investigated. Who asked Sorin Blejnar, a rotten corrupt individual, who asked him to conduct these verifications and this form of repression and suppression? Then there came the National Audiovisual Council, who should have, I believe, some parliamentary committees over him exerting their control responsibilities. We have all seen a lady asking to shut down a TV outlet and we all remember that the NAC president was caught inventing complaints, against our TV channel. We had to pay huge amounts. O form of suppression is fining” said Mihai Gâdea, Antena 3 CEO.
Mihai Gâdea has also addressed the topic of press independence, respectively the legally funded institutions, as well as those illegally financed.
“ I have recently seen some individuals who were not scared because they were trained not to be scared, they were train to induce fear and terror. They were individual theoretically representing the NAFA, raiding, taking pictures and asking how they allow themselves to inhabit a state’s building. The press vulnerability, especially of the independent one, let’s not hide it, there is an independent press, there are media institutions who struggle to get money fairly and transparently from advertising and there are press institutions financed illegally” added Mihai Gâdea.
Journalist Adrian Ursu noted that the Senate is one of the few institutions that try to serve the public, given that Romania is led by appointed people, not by the elected ones.
“The Parliament has been forbidden the exercise of its rights. It is unacceptable for a parliamentary committed to call a chief prosecutor, in the Romania of our times, penalties are being applied to journalists and politicians, if they make any comments on the judiciary. But the judiciary can do anything. A re-balancing of these relations is needed. The Senate seems to be the only institution trying to rediscover its purpose, to become again an institution serving the people who voted them. The present Romania is no longer led by the elected, but by the self-centered and the secret police” Adrian Ursu believes.