"ROMANIA THINK TANK" ACCUSES TV Stations' Debts To State - A Form of Unfair Competition

• "Romania Think Tank" suggests that The State's refusal to demand payment of mass media debts is a reason to postpone Romania's accession to E.U.

"Romania Think Tank" has written an open letter to European Parliament Rapporteur on Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson, suggesting that she should pressure The Romanian Government into forcing Romanian television stations and other mass media to pay their debts to The State.

The Government's tolerance towards the huge debts to The State that Romanian mass media (especially the major television stations) have accumulated is described by "Romania Think Tank" as a perverse manner in which ruling political factors manipulate mass media to serve their interests. Considering that this is an electoral year, "Romania Think Tank" believes it is of the utmost importance to terminate this practice and suggests to Baroness Emma Nicholson to act in such a manner as to determine The Romanian Government to force mass media to pay their debts by May 31st.

The letter from "Romania Think Tank" comes at a time when the Romanian public has not forgotten the crisis between The Romanian Government and The European Parliament, a crisis generated by Baroness Nicholson's initial intention to move for a suspension of accession negotiations with Romania, in light of suspicions that Romanian authorities have violated official agreements on international child adoptions. During this crisis, The Romanian Academic Society (S.A.R.) accused The Government of limiting freedom of the press through fiscal levers: by allowing mass media to accumulate huge debts to The State, The Government secures the political obedience of the debtors. Although she changed her mind about moving for a suspension of accession negotiations with Romania, Baroness Nicholson took over the matter of the freedom of the press and included it among the aspects to be monitored by The E.U.

Since the mechanism of media manipulation is extremely perfidious, Alina Mungiu herself (the one who addressed this matter on behalf of The Romanian Academic Society) made the error of suggesting the alternative that mass media debts be pardoned.

At that time, "BURSA" explained that pardoning the mass media debts will not restore the mass media's freedom of expression for the simple reason that the media institutions which have accumulated very substantial debts are not economically viable. "BURSA" also pointed out that the mass media in question have been applying their plan to fund their development with overdue taxes for many years and that it is perfectly correct to discuss the matter of the limitation of the freedom of the press, but not with regards to the major television corporations whose shareholders have made a fortune since their companies started making losses and piling debts and, moreover, have never complained about the so-called "pressures" put on them for the simple reason that they are The Government's accomplices in this "business" of manipulating the public. No!, the real limitation of the freedom of the press affects the nonaligned media, who have made efforts to pay their taxes, and who do not owe anything to The State. These media, which have chosen morality over dirty earnings, have been subjected to serious pressures from two directions: on the one hand, there is excessive taxation and, on the other hand, there is the unfair competition with media corporations that do not pay taxes. To pardon mass media debts without compensating the media that do not have any debts would be nothing short of an act of utter contempt for the morally-correct press and a new attack at its freedom.

This is why the open letter from "Romania Think Tank" is a more correct approach of the matter of the freedom of the press, as it points out that The Government's tolerance to indebted media distorts the market and leads to unfair competition (an unfair competition that "BURSA" has been withstanding for 14 years without yielding an inch).

The Plenary Session of The European Parliament is scheduled for March 10th, while the deadline for submitting amendments is March 4th, 12:00hrs. In order to submit an amendment, Emma Nicholson needs 32 endorsement signatures from as many members of The European Parliament.