Romanian journalists initiate media protection campaign

Several Romanian politicians, journalists and artists set up a media right protection group, following President Traian Basescu’s decision to list the media among potential threats to the country’s national security, social democrat deputy Carmen Moldovan said in a press release Saturday, Mediafax News Agency informs.

The campaign aims to eliminate from the country’s national defense strategy, adopted in June by the Defense Council (CSAT), those provisions which target the mass media.

Romania’s defense strategy lists “orchestrated media campaigns that denigrate state institutions by disseminating false information” among threats to national security, beside terrorism, corruption and organized crime.

After the listing of mass- media among the threats to the national security, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists, rejected the idea that media are a potential threat to national security in Romania, according to EFJ’s site.