On Thursday, Ziarul Financiar reported the position of the Union of Professional Journalists of Romania: the union finds unacceptable the decision announced at Cotroceni Palace to bar a journalist from future presidential press conferences. The UZPR statement is dated 11 November, 9:38. It does not name the journalist. The line it puts first is that forbidding the press to ask questions means denying it the right to exist, and that the measure also concerns citizens who expect answers from people in public office.

The decision had been said in the room on Tuesday evening, 10 November. President Nicușor Dan told journalist Ovidiu Vanghele, of the Media Investigation Centre, that he would not come to Cotroceni press conferences during this term and would not ask questions. He cited “insults” Vanghele had allegedly directed at him, without pointing in that moment to the messages. He added that he had already ordered the restriction, but that “my soft-hearted colleagues jumped over my order”. Vanghele replied that he had not known of the order.

The exchange followed a question about prosecutor general Cristina Chiriac, appointed by the president on 8 April. Vanghele said that a month to a month and a half earlier she had voted in the prosecutors’ section of the Superior Council of Magistracy against referring to the Judicial Inspection a case of interference that would have concerned her, and asked whether that belongs to the justice reform promised in the campaign. Nicușor Dan did not answer the substance of the question. The account of the question and the replies is the one published by Libertatea and confirmed, on the substance, by Radio România and Antena 3.

UZPR ties the case to a wider rule: authorities must grant accreditation without discrimination, and journalists owe a civil dialogue. The union says it also condemns excesses by colleagues, and that any lapse is sanctioned only through the procedures of the law. Bans it calls arbitrary, it writes, set a precedent, because they make press access depend on the goodwill of the people asked for explanations. Press freedom, the statement adds, is not negotiated.

The legal frame cited by Radio România is Article 18 of Law 544/2001: accreditation is granted without discrimination, and a refusal or withdrawal is allowed only for acts that impede the institution’s normal work and that do not concern opinions expressed in the press. The measure is communicated in writing, and the news organisation may still seek accreditation for another representative. In the sources available by Thursday there is no ruling that says the ban announced on Tuesday meets or breaks that text. UZPR asks the authorities to ensure access to information of public interest; the statement does not describe a court case.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — the entrance to the National Cotroceni Museum, in the Cotroceni Palace complex, photograph by Leontin l (CC BY-SA 3.0 Romania). It is not from Tuesday’s conference.

Sources consulted: The Union of Professional Journalists criticises a ban on a journalist at Cotroceni press conferences — Ziarul Financiar; UZPR defends the public’s right to be informed — Union of Professional Journalists of Romania; Nicușor Dan barred a journalist from Cotroceni — Libertatea; Journalist barred from Cotroceni Palace — Radio România.