Mafia-style actions against Romanian magistrates, journalists must stop

A standard Mafia-style action aimed at intimidating members of the Judiciary and of the press took place downtown Bucharest on Thursday night. There, an unsanctioned intelligence service tailed, filmed, tapped two magistrates and two journalists who were attending a party.

The parallel secret service acting under the cover of a paparazzi division filmed the four while they were celebrating the birthday of a prosecutor, as people attending the gathering told G4Media.ro. The recordings were then used by a series of media to support claims of an alleged conspiracy of some prosecutors and journalists against new top prosecutors named by President Iohannis at the helm of key institutions of the judiciary on Thursday.

The recordings were broadcast Friday evening by news channel Romania TV, which is controlled by Sebstian Ghita, a fugitive businessman who is targeted by several corruption cases. They were then taken over by Gandul website, owned by Radu Budeanu, also investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Department (DNA), as well as by Evenimentul ilei newspaper, who has been indicted in a different corruption-related case.

The said conspiracy theory had been pushed by Gandul website for more than a week, with the support of another news channel, Antena 3 TV, controlled by another businessman who has been convicted in a corruption case – Dan Voiculescu.

It is unacceptable that in a European country with functional institutions one can find media groups, controlled by criminally investigated people, coordinating actions to defame, harass and tail magistrates and journalists and get away with it.

As records and the coverage of the Thursday night action show, it was a professionally organised operation which included tailing people to the bathroom, recording ambient talking and so on.

The situation is even more serious as the targeted prosecutors and journalists are subject of a media defamation campaign run by media companies of criminally investigated people.

The media groups of the four criminally investigated media owners join their forces to intimidate and put pressure on journalists and magistrates. Those journalists and magistrates along with the prosecutors who disagreed with the naming of new heads at the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Romanian prosecutorial body dealing with organised crime DIICOT, are accused of conspiring agains those new top prosecutors.

To make it clear it is not associated with this Mafia-style action, the Romanian state should bring light on this serious situation: who ordered the tailing and intimidation action, with what purpose and in whose interest? How come that only journalists and magistrates who disagreed with the naming of the new chief prosecutors are targets of discreditation? What do the criminally-charged media owners have to gain from supporting the new top prosecutors, whom not only they did not ever criticised, but supported by lending their full media force to criticise their opponents? How come prosecutors from the Superior Council of Magitrates have become targets of the long contested special section investigating magistrates?

Has the Mafia got to the point of working hand in hand with the Romanian state?

Such actions of secret service-like tailing can only take place when state institutions are weak, or interested, or accomplice to those actions.

In the absence of a quick response to clarify the situation, if this case gets the silent treatment from the Romanian state institutions, then President Klaus Iohannis, intelligence service SRI chief Eduard Helvig, new Prosecutor General Gabriela Scutea and new DIICOT head Giorgiana Hosu would look like the main beneficiaries and accomplices of this dirty operation.

Traducerea și adaptarea: Costin Ionescu