Romanian Think Tank Again Tackles Romanian Press Freedom Limitations in the "Financial Times"

In the absence of any reaction from The Romanian Press Club, a new letter from "Romania Think Tank" about the matter of Romanian press freedom was published in the "Financial Times" yesterday, a few days after Romania Think Tank had stressed the seriousness of this subject in a letter to the European Parliament rapporteur on Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson. The letter published yesterday is a reply to Romanian Minister of European Integration Alexandru Farcas's reaction to the article "Reform failure threatens Romania's EU plans" published by "Financial Times" on February 19th.

Romania Think Tank questions the progress made in instating press freedom that Minister Farcas referred to and insists in expressing hope that The European Parliament will scrutinize the matter of how free the Romanian press is.

In the other letter, the one sent to Baroness Emma Nicholson (published in full in yesterday's issue of "BURSA"), Romania Think Tank suggests to the European Parliament rapporteur to pressure The Romanian Government into making television stations and other mass media pay their debts to The State. Romania Think Tank also suggested that observance of Romania's E.U. accession timetable should depend on the payment of all mass media debts to The State by May 31st, 2004. In order to submit such amendment to The European Parliament, Baroness Nicholson needs to gather 32 endorsement signatures from as many M.E.P.s by March 4th.

Dutch politicians (countrymen of Arie Oostlander M.E.P., the one who endorsed Baroness Nicholson's opinion that accession negotiations with Romania should be suspended) on Saturday said Europe would monitor Romanian press freedom through groups of independent experts and that Romania may need more time to join E.U. than Bulgaria.

Press freedom is a matter closely related to the existence of The Romanian Press Club, therefore the absence of any official stand by this professional journalist organization may seem paradoxical at this crucial time not only for our profession, but for the entire country. The explanation, however, is very simple: among the members of The Council of Honor of The Romanian Press Club are the leaders of the heavily indebted mass media...