Many nations around the world have been known to secure their image in a positive light so other countries won't speculate how they run their government. Places like Serbia, Russia and Turkey are some of the few that have been known to punish journalists who speak out against the government. This week Romania has made headlines as members of one of their notorious newspapers, Romania Libera has been under heat while many others have been involved with legal crimes for speaking out on régime affairs.
“There’s been a series of high- profile arrest and hasty prosecutions of the country’s largest media owners… there are very few independent media owners who have not been dragged before court” as mentioned in Forbes.
As Romania Libera await hearing, rumors of bankruptcy are suspected to shut down the newspaper for good for the debt owed to insurance company Astra. However, they stand by what their principles as Forbes quoted editor-in-chief Sabin Orcan, “We are a thorn in the side of the Romanian state because we relentlessly expose graft, despotism and incompetence across the political spectrum.”
In an article on Euraia Review written by Sabin Orcan he describes that “observers described the process initiated by the government to intervene and take over Astra as a politically motivated campaign aimed at jailing businessman Dan Adamescu and silencing Romania Libera.” Nevertheless, he believes some voices will never be silenced.
Ocran explains that due to newspapers like the Romania Libera, unjust leaders like former Prime Minister Victor Ponta have been exposed for being involved in affairs like “suspicious emergency decrees and has called into question the Government’s commitment to respect the rule of law.”
“Romania is and always has been a complicated political environment where public and private agenda are difficult to discern” says Simon Wolfe of Forbes magazine. “Given what we have seen happen in Russia, Hungary and numerous other countries in the region, this is a pattern that should not be ignored.”