Tuesday, September 23rd

Press freedom under debate at Romania’s Parliament Palace

A conference hosted by the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is taking place at the Parliament Palace in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Tuesday. The conference concentrates on issues concerning the press freedom, politics’ involvement and corruption, RADIO ROMANIA reported. Opening speaches were given by Romnaian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and former Austrian Vice-Chancellor Dr. Erhard Busek, current co-ordinator of the South-East European Co-operative Initiative, Chairman of the Institute for the Danube and Central Europe, former special co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. Other speakers included SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic, and SEEMO Romania President Marina Constantinoiu.
Participants include Erik Csernovitz, Secretary General of the Central-European Initiative (CEI), Joan Barata Mir, chief adviser of the OSCE Press Freedom Office representative, Renate Schroeder, head of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Ognian Zlatev, head of the European Commission Delegation in Bulgaria, Vicenzo Le Voci, Secretary General of the Venice Club, and many others.
Journalists, media experts, editors, and media managers are expected to join foreign guests in order to discuss latest developements in Romanian and European media.
The event in Bucharest is hosted by SEEMO in partnership with the International Academy – International Media Center (IA-IMC) and the PR Organisation for Central and South-Eastern Europe (SECEPRO) with Radio Romania Actualităţi and RADOR News Agency as local partners among other media institutions.

President Traian Băsescu signs into law a fiscal amnesty for the retired, mothers and civil servants

Retired people, mothers and civil servants who illegaly received money should not give it back as it was the state who was at fault. Romanian President Traian Băsescu has signed into law a fiscal amnesty on the matter, according to a statement of the Presidency issued on Tuesday. As RADIO ROMANIA reports, the lower house of the Romanian parliament adopted the law on the matter early this month.

Romanian unemployment figures

The average rate of the unemployment hit 6.7 percent in the last six months of 2013, according to figures released by Romania’s National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Tuesday. Some 9,300,000 people were employed in Romania in the first six months of the year with an age between 15 and 64, according to INS standards. Slightly more than 5,800,000 people were employed while the number of unemployed hit 625,000 in the second third of the year. Youths seem most affected by unemployment with a rate of 33 percent among 15 and 24 years of age, RADIO ROMANIA reported.

Romanian Defence Minister under scrutiny

Former Romanian Defence Minister Corneliu Dobriţoiu says the country’s current defence minister MIrcea Duşa should appear before a Senate Defence Committee in order to answer questions concerning the case of journalist Robert Turcescu who recently unveiled that he worked as an undercover officer of the country’s Ministry of Defence. However, the committee failed to discuss Mr. Dobriţoiu’s proposal due to lack of quorum. The former minister told RADIO ROMANIA that a debate on the issue was crucial as Mr. Turcescu’s case badly affected the ministry’s reputation.

Alexandru Danga