EnglishThe notice "The Newspaper BURSA is legally censored" has been published in the upper front page of out newspaper for over a year. Our loyal readers know what this is about, but the newer ones have trouble understanding its significance.
In light of the letter written by "Romania Think Tank," the case of "BURSA" (which The Bucharest City Court found "guilty of unfair competition" for having published articles about the perverse machinations related to the debts of certain television stations) is a good example to illustrate how far the absurdity of the manipulation mechanism devised by The State can go. We would like to point out that "BURSA" has used every legal means to seek justice in Romania and that we have now taken the matter to an international court. Hereinbelow are relevant excerpts from the ruling of The Bucharest City Court. For so doing, we cannot be accused of having violated the Court's ruling because the Court itself forced us to publish it!
• Civil Ruling no. 13847/14 November 2002 (excerpts)
Undoubtedly the articles published by the newspaper "BURSA" create not only suspicions, but a negative opinion about the plaintiffs, of the nature to cause a diminution of the number of persons using various mass media sour-ces (newspapers, television channels, radio channels) and therefore a diminution of the turnover of the companies in question.
Most of the articles do not contain innuendos, but straightforward accusations against "Media Pro Group," "Pro TV" and "MEDIA PRO INTERNATIONAL."
Such accusations refer to, for instance, the economic-financial status of "MEDIA PRO," described as "the most indebted group in the country," "hardened debtor," "full of debts and nerve," "dishonest," perpetrator of "accounting scams," or to the company's manner of conducting business, described as "Romania's Enron" and "a possible subject for an inter-state criminal investigation," and promoter of "incestuous management."
These accusations, even though they were proven correct, are of such a serious nature that they can induce to the readers feelings of disproval, even repulsion towards the respective media group and, by the phrases they contain, these accusations are evidence of at least a misunderstanding of the principle of freedom of the press and, in a broader sense, of the right to an opinion and to information.
NOTE: For the articles mentioned hereinabove, "BURSA" has been sued four times by the respective plaintiffs. This is the only lawsuit that "BURSA" lost. The Romanian Press Club has avoided discussing the matter of these lawsuits for a long time (and has not under any circumstances discussed the matter of the debts that mass media owe to The State). In the course of the so-called attempt (a belated one) to solve the conflict between the two media groups, Romanian Press Club president Cristian Tudor Popescu asked "BURSA" to stop publishing any commentary on this topic in exchange for the plaintiffs' promise to terminate legal action against "BURSA." The representative of "BURSA" did not agree. Later on, he was abusively excluded from The Council of Honor of The Romanian Press Club (which is the subject of a lawsuit that "BURSA" filed against The Romanian Press Club) in the context that the representatives of the other party to the conflict had been admitted in The Council of Honor as founding members, in violation of The Statute of The Romanian Press Club (which is the subject of another lawsuit that "BURSA" filed against The Romanian Press Club).
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