RAI journalist ‘detained’ and aggressed by Romanian MP
A journalist of the RAI (an Italian radio and television channel) was detained and beaten in Romania during an alleged interview with a Romanian senator on Monday. A team of TG1 (the news programme of the RAI’s channel 1) was expected to interview Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă, an independent senator and former member of AUR, a far-right party officially known as the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. RAI’s Lucia Goracci accused Ms. Șoșoacă of violence during an alleged interview over the COVID-19 crisis in Romania at a time when the country reported a daily number of hundreds of deaths recently. Ms Goracci and her team were detained for hours before the Romanian police managed to ensure their release. „The husband of Ms. Șoșoacă kicked me”, Ms. Goracci said upon her release. The Italian embassy had to intervene while Ms. Goracci submitted a formal complaint on the matter. „Romania should apologise for the aggresion against RAI’s Lucia Goracci and her team. If Bucharest is still in Europe, such incidents should not happen”, reads a statement of RAI’s trade union USiGRai.
A decision of Romania’s CSM challenged by USR
The vicepresindent of Save Romania Union (USR), a center-right opposition party in Romania, said his party will challenge a ruling of Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) at the European Commision. The CSM decided to remove judge Cristi Danileț from the judicial system after his release on Tik Tok of videoclips where he appears to perform karate moves before cutting a hedge. USR vicepresident Dan Barna said that former Justice Minister Stealian Ion was already writing down a complaint on the matter. The move comes after CSM overwhelmingly decided the removal of Mr. Danileț. A Romanian MP, Iulian Bulai, will address the imater before the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe. MEP Siegfried Mureșan, a leading member of the governing National Liberal Party (PNL), also criticised the CSM decision which he found ‚unjustified’.
Romania coronavirus updates
Romania reported 946 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with 106 deaths (55 men, 51 women), and another 4 people under intensive care. In the capital Bucharest, the number of cases hit 251, according to data issued by the country’s Strategic Communication Group (GSC). With its 251 cases reported, Bucharest still leads among other regions across the country, followed by the north-western county of Cluj, with 78 cases, central county of Brașov, with 65 cases, and central county of Sibiu, with 58 cases.
Alexandru Danga
