There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Romania during the year, according to the Department of State’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Romania.
“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government or on behalf of the government; and serious government corruption.
The government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses, but in some cases government actions were insufficient and impunity was a problem,” the US report says.
The report further notes that “the constitution and the law provided for an independent judiciary, and the government generally respected judicial independence and impartiality”, but ‘inefficiency and lack of accountability in judicial oversight sometimes undermined judicial independence and impartiality.”
“Civil society and government watchdogs asserted disciplinary actions were used against judges or prosecutors as political retaliation for their decisions or perceived political inclinations. There were credible allegations judges were removed from cases pending disciplinary actions, and then reassigned when those disciplinary actions were found to have no merit, suggesting disciplinary actions were wrongly used to influence which judges were assigned to sensitive trials.
According to the European Commission’s Rule of Law Report released on July 5, “Some cases of disciplinary sanctions [against judges and prosecutors] have continued to raise concerns.” According to the 2023 EU Justice Scoreboard, 51 percent of the general population perceived the level of independence of courts and judges to be “fairly or very good.”
As for the freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, the US report states that the government partially respected this right. “Independent media organizations noted excessive politicization of media, corrupt financing mechanisms, as well as editorial policies subordinated to political parties and owners’ interests. Reporters and civil society representatives said their freedom of expression was limited by restricted access or paid access to information of public interest issued by the government and public institutions, including expenses, contracts or bids involving public funds, and the academic records of public officials. Reporters and NGOs often had to sue state-controlled ministries, agencies, or local entities to access public information. Some reporters throughout the country were harassed, sued, or threatened by authorities whom they investigated or by their proxies.”
The report also mentions that journalists, due to their reporting, were subjected to harassment and intimidation tactics by authorities in Romania, exemplifying with the cases of Emilia Sercan or Crina Boros.
“British freelance investigative journalist Crina Boros claimed staff from the Ministry of Environment, Waters, and Forest subjected her to two hours of aggressive interrogation during a May 18 meeting. Boros was attempting to document allegations of illegal logging, mining, and habitat destruction. As part of her investigation, in August 2022, Boros filed a freedom of information request for data on logging permits and loggers. She claimed one participant in the meeting tried to pressure her to stop investigating and accused her of representing “obscure political interests.” The International Press Institute called on then Minister of Environment Tánczos Barna to publicly denounce the actions of his staff and to provide the data sought by Boros,” says the report.
“On October 24, the Bucharest Court of Appeal Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigation into alleged harassment, threats, blackmail, and privacy violations targeting investigative journalist Emilia Sercan. Sercan reported receiving multiple threats and blackmail attempts after she published in 2022 a story alleging plagiarism in then Prime Minister Ciuca’s doctoral dissertation. In her complaint, she claimed police assigned to the investigation leaked private pictures of her to media. Several domestic and international media freedom groups, including Reporters without Borders, signed a joint letter condemning the prosecutors’ decision and noted several failures and breaches of procedure in the investigation.
Independent online outlet Hotnews media claimed the harassment against Sercan was condoned and possibly directed by representatives from the governing National Liberal Party (PNL). Hotnews asserted PNL members were instructed to attack Sercan during media interviews and to insist she had “a political vendetta” and “bad intentions.” In January, two articles disparaging Sercan were published on Facebook and two news websites. Debunking platform Misreport analyzed the posts and claimed they were paid for by an advertising agency registered with the Permanent Electoral Authority as having contracts with the PNL in the 2020 electoral campaigns. Sercan asserted she was the victim of a well-documented “government-orchestrated smear campaign.”
Read the entire report here.
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