Latest update: 14/07/2010

- journalists - media - Romania - security

Romanian government goes into battle against the media

The media - a threat to national security. That's what the Romanian government believes, and President Traian Basescu has just signed a new security strategy into law, tightening up what newspapers and other media outlets can say. Naturally, journalists are up in arms, fearing that restrictions on their freedom of speech hark too closely back to the Communist years, which ended two decades ago.

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23/05/2012 - CANADA

Students in Quebec march against tuition fee hike

Student protests in the Canadian province Quebec are into their fourth month. Hundreds were arrested at marches to mark 100 days since the protests began. Students are demonstrating against an 80 percent rise in tuition fees in Quebec, the Canadian province that has until now enjoyed the country's lowest rates for higher education.

23/05/2012 - EGYPT

Egyptians head to the polls

Egyptians go to the polls in the country's first truly contested presidential election on Wednesday. With an array of candidates to choose from, voters will decide who's the best man to lead them through the last phase of the country's troubled democratic transition that began with Egypt's revolution in January last year. Cairo correspondents Kathryn Stapley and Sonia Dridi talked to some of the activists whose protests in Tahrir Square changed the course of Egypt's history.

22/05/2012 - EGYPT

A troubling time for Egypt's Coptic Christians

Egyptians go to the polls tomorrow to vote for a new president for the first time since Hosni Mubarak was ousted during the revolution last year. Two of the front-runners in the presidential race with a realistic chance of winning are devout Islamists, which is troubling for Egypt's Coptic Christians. They are Egypt's largest religious minority and many of them don't think any of the candidates are capable of protecting them from the religious violence that has been steadily increasing.

22/05/2012 - WEST BANK

'The Battle of the Empty Stomachs'

Palestinians nicknamed it "the battle of the empty stomachs". For weeks, 1,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails refused food and drink in what became the longest ever mass hunger strike. Israel finally capitulated and a deal was reached, allowing those in isolation back onto the general wards, and visas for those family members wishing to visit from Gaza. In exchange, prisoners agreed not to carry out "security activities" such as recruiting for terrorist missions.

21/05/2012 - SERBIA

Serbia's new president - nationalist or not?

Serbia has elected a new president - and it's not the one that most people were expecting. Tomislav Nikolic has unseated Boris Tadic, the man in power since 2004. Observers are worried about the new head of state, who used to be part of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party. He once said he would prefer to be allied with Russia than join the EU, but he has since toned down the rhetoric, saying he will take Serbia to Europe after all.

Comments (2)

The one thing that worked

by Anonyme - 16/07/2010 - 14:51

I don't know the law, but democracy started with corruption and crime at high level two decades ago in Romania. The only ones to seemingly keep things in check was the free media. Justice, politics, public policy was very corrupt and journalist ended up in prison in Romania albeit after airing damning reports.
In a country where the only people that end up in prison for using unlicensed Word software are journalists, I don't think that this law was the next important thing to do.
I think it attacks the only thing that still worked so far in this, not so young anymore, democracy. A shame.

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the so-called journalism

by Anonyme - 16/07/2010 - 13:27

"Freedom of speech" shouldn't allow irresponsability and lack of culture and education. Except very few, in Romania journalism means "say anythning you want, just shock, to sell the paper". The so-called journalists invoke freedom of speech in order to avoid the code of their profession. They keep on saying the same lie until it becomes a truth - a technique of communist propaganda, right? Why don't you write about how you can get a diploma in Romania without taking any course, or about the criteria of selection when hiring a "journalist"? It could be far more interesting...

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