Bulgaria Censured for Expelling Turkish Journalist Fleeing Arrest

Bulgaria’s actions in handing back a journalist wanted by the Turkish authorities in 2016 were unlawful and were part of the systematic expulsion of refugees and migrants with no examination of the risk of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, the European Court of Human Rights decided on Tuesday.

The Bulgarian state was ordered to pay the journalist 15,000 euros in damages.

The court in Strasbourg found that he was forced to leave Turkey amid a widespread crackdown in the aftermath of a failed coup in July 2016.

“I was working as a journalist in the town of Bozova. After the attempted coup, I was dismissed from the newspaper. I changed address and found out that the police had been looking for me at my former address,” said the journalist, according to the court’s legal summary of the case.

Along with eight other refugees from Turkey and Syria, he was captured in a truck at the Bulgarian-Romanian border on October 14, 2016.

Despite expressing his fear of return, at no point did the Bulgarian authorities assess the risk of torture, mistreatment and further political persecution, the court ruling said. He was not granted access to a lawyer or interpreter.

He was returned to Turkey within less than 24 hours. Upon arrival, he was detained, and in December 2019, sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation.

According to the European Court of Human Rights, the Turkish verdict was largely based on the fact that he had the messenger application Bylock installed on his mobile phone. The app is used by the movement led by cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the Turkish government claims was behind the attempted coup and regards as a terrorist organisation.

“The ECtHR’s decision provides belated but important satisfaction for the applicant. It sets a strong counterpoint to Bulgaria’s longstanding practice of denying refugees protection from persecution and handing them straight back to their persecutors,” said the journalist’s lawyer, Carsten Gericke.

There has been no immediate official reaction from Bulgaria to the court’s ruling.

A BIRN investigation in October 2019 found that over 250 Turkish citizens requested asylum in Kosovo, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria following the failed coup in Turkey.

Balkan Region’s Media Pluralism Stagnated in Pandemic, Report Warns

Balkan countries have experienced a general stagnation or deterioration in terms of media pluralism and media freedoms during 2020, shows a new study, “Media Pluralism Monitor 2021”, published by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute.

These trends can be observed through the four fundamental risk areas encompassed in the study: fundamental protection, market plurality, political independence and social inclusiveness.

Medium and high-risk factors for Balkan countries

In the area of fundamental protection, which among other things encompasses the protection of freedom of information, right to information and observing of journalistic standards, North Macedonia scores best out of all the Balkan countries in the study.

On a scale from 0 to 100 when scores between 0 and 33 per cent are marked as low risk factors, scores between 34 to 66 per cent mark medium risk, and scores between 67 and 100 per cent indicate high risk, only North Macedonia was marked as low risk, with a score of 32 per cent.

The rest of the countries were put in the medium risk group. Croatia scored 42 per cent, Montenegro 43 per cent, Serbia 45 per cent, Slovenia 48 per cent and Albania 59 per cent.

In the area of market plurality, which looked at issues like transparency of media ownership, news media concentration and owners’ influence over the editorial policies of the outlets, Montenegro was ranked best with 62 per cent, followed by North Macedonia with 64 per cent, both being ranked medium risk.

The rest of the countries were marked high risk. Serbia scored 69 per cent, Croatia 71 per cent, Slovenia 76 per cent while Albania ranked worst, with 89 per cent.

The third area concerns over political independence, which measures indicators such as editorial autonomy, state regulation and resources allocated to media and the independence of funding. All countries from the region in the survey, bar Slovenia, were marked as medium risk.

North Macedonia again scored best with 50 per cent, followed by Serbia on 57 per cent, Croatia with 61 per cent, Montenegro and Albania which both scored 64 per cent. Slovenia was marked as a country of high risk with a score of 73 per cent.

The fourth fundamental risk area in the report, social inclusiveness, encompasses indicators like access to media by minorities, as well as for local and regional communities, access to media for women, media literacy as well as protection against illegal or harmful speech.

In this risk area, North Macedonia again scored best with 58 per cent, followed by Croatia with 61 per cent, the only two countries marked with a medium risk factor.

Serbia scored 67 per cent, Slovenia 70 per cent, Albania 72 per cent and Montenegro scored worst, with 73 per cent.


Illustration: Pixabay

General stagnation or decline

Starting with Slovenia, the report noted that all monitored areas showed a slight or significant deterioration compared to the findings of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2020.

“Unlike many other EU countries, Slovenia and its government did not enable or promote any financial, fiscal, or tax instrument, strategy, or other potential intervention aimed at strengthening media plurality or, for example, social inclusiveness” during the pandemic of 2020, the report noted.

For Croatia, another EU country, the report noted that the regulation of the media sector has been stagnant for years, which has resulted in the deterioration of media pluralism.

The report said that, “there is no overarching media strategy, or initiative, to tackle specifically local issues such as poor protection of the journalistic profession and standards. The country has seen a surge of SLAPPs and defamation charges aimed at journalists”, adding: “Political interference without considerations of public interests is seen in many appointment procedures: from the public service media to the main media regulator.”

On Albania, the report noted that the country is weakest in terms of market pluralism, where it “faces a high level of news media concentration in its audio visual media market, while the viability of most outlets – apart from a number of family owned conglomerates that control the lion share of revenues and audiences, is weak”.

In the area of fundamental protection, Albania should do more to increase professional and journalistic standards, the report said, in order to avoid the threat of government intervention to regulate online media content, as proposed by the current ruling Socialist Party.

As for Montenegro, the report said the country’s legal framework is suitable for the development of media pluralism, but more in a quantitative than in a qualitative sense.

While the process of establishing media, especially online, is extremely free, there is no effort to boost professional or ethical standards. In addition, efforts to create and implement rules for digital news media that limit political influence have generally been sporadic, insufficient, and ineffective, the report said.

“Existing legal solutions allow political power to control the public broadcaster and the other media at the national and local levels, the report further states, especially through their dependency on public financing” the report also noted.

The report also said that the establishment of the state-level Fund for Encouraging Media Pluralism and Diversity is an innovation that may yet prove its worth, provided that strong control over the distribution of resources is established.

When it comes to Serbia, the general conclusion is that while the country has a solid legal framework covering traditional media, full enforcement of this is missing.

Some highlighted points are political and state advertising in media, lack of transparent media ownership and the lack of protection for media workers and instances of attacks on journalists that remain unsanctioned.

“During the 2020 election campaign, the so-called functionary campaign turned out to be the weakest element in media regulation, so this issue should be arranged by the Law.  The area of political advertising and reporting on spending on online platforms campaigns should be regulated by the Law as well. Political advertisement should be equally accessible to all political players, under the same conditions,” the report said.

Of the six countries from the region, North Macedonia had the highest overall score. The report notes that the situation in 2020 “significantly improved” compared to 2016, the last year of the former authoritarian PM Nikola Gruevski who was ousted in 2017.

The report notes that media freedoms are broader, journalists and their associations are no longer exposed to serious physical attacks and pressures, and the regulator is fairly independent and more efficient.

However, risks remain present: “The market is fragmented, most media are economically weak, and the working status of journalists is still unstable,” the report noted.

In general, for all countries, the report points out that for most of the countries’ populations, especially the young, online media have become their main source of information, and with this comes their increased exposure to disinformation and hate speech.

This creates a new challenge for all these countries’ regulatory policies, the report concludes.

The Media Pluralism Monitor 2021 was published as a research tool designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism in member states of the European Union and candidate countries.

The project, under a preparatory action of the European Parliament, was supported by a grant awarded by the European Commission to the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute.

EU Warns Albania Against Electing ‘Partisan’ Media Authority Chief

The European Union office in Tirana has voiced concern about the political impartiality of the new members and chief of Albania’s main media regulatory body.

In a statement, it emphasized that “media regulatory authorities need to work impartially, transparently and with a legitimacy that is recognised by all”, and that “no doubt should exist about the non-partisan, professional & pluralistic nature of the work” of the institution.

“We invite the authorities to consider proceeding with this nomination under the new parliament starting in September, together with the appointment of the other board members of the Authority, in order to achieve the widest possible consensus and legitimacy,” the statement published on Twitter reads.

Albania’s parliament, currently controlled by the governing Socialists and their associates, is planning to elect a new Audiovisual Media Authority Board, AMA, where the main contender is Armela Krasniqi, a close associate of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

BIRN has learned that the EU statement on Wednesday came after the Socialists spurned an EU private request to postpone the vote.

The AMA supervises the television and radio market in Albania. Rama attempted in 2019 to extend and empower it to supervise and order take-downs or fine online media, claiming it was needed to combat defamation.

The AMA is historically perceived as politically biased, as the members of the board are proposed by political parties. However, the possible election of Krasniqi, a known close associate of the Prime Minister, has raised hackles.

The political bias of AMA was one of the arguments provided by the Venice Commission against extending its power to supervise online media.

The so-called anti-defamation package was approved by the governing Socialists despite local and international criticism but has been blocked by President Ilir Meta’s veto.

Rama once claimed he had withdrawn the law proposal. However, no formal step to remove it from the parliamentary agenda has been undertaken, and the law is still listed as up for discussion.

Kosovo Court Orders Detention for Media Commission Duo for Bribery

A court in Kosovo has ordered 30 days of detention for the head of Independent Media Commission, IMC, Luan Latifi, and its Director of Finances, Arben Bilalli, a day after they were arrested in Pristina on bribery suspicions.

The Pristina Basic Court on Thursday said there was grounded suspicion that both Bilalli and Latifi have been involved in a graft affair.

The IMC is an independent institution responsible for the regulation, management and oversight of the broadcasting frequency spectrum in Kosovo.

It licenses public and private broadcasters, establishes and implements policy and regulates broadcasting rights, obligations and responsibilities of individuals and entities who provide audio and audiovisual media services.

The board of the IMC held two meetings on Thursday after the arrests. “After the review [of the situation created] the Board has requested an interpretation from the IMC’s legal department on how to further proceed in line with legal obligations,” it said. “The IMC once again expresses its readiness to provide full cooperation with justice institutions in order to help investigations until the end,” it added.

Arben Bilalli, Director of Finances at the IMC, was arrested first on Wednesday. Prosecution documents obtained by BIRN say he was caught red-handed in an undercover police operation.

The documents say Bilalli and Latifi met a private business’s representatives three times to negotiate a fine the IMC had imposed on the entity.

According to the dossier, Bilalli accepted 8,000 euros from business owners but was not aware that the money belonged to the police and was used to simulate the action. The prosecution says that after he received the money, Bilalli was in constant contact with his boss Latifi.

Kosovo’s Broadcaster at Crossroads as MPs Ready to Sack Board

Ilir Bytyci, member of the board of Kosovo’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, submitted his abrupt resignation on Thursday, claiming he was quitting to distance himself from “all the illegal actions and possible ethical code violations” occurring in RTK. He also cited an inability to “change things from the inside”.

Sali Bashota, head of the RTK board, followed by issuing a statement saying the resignation was illegal, as it should have been submitted three months in advance.

In recent months, BIRN has reported that while Bashota was a member of the board, his son-in-law was hired as a janitor in RTK, which is against the law, as members of the board are forbidden from employing relatives.

BIRN has also reported how family members of former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci were hired as a copyright expert, a camera operator and in the marketing department.

Allegations of nepotism


Kosovo public broadcaster, RTK, board reporting to the parliamentary commission. Photo: BIRN

In the last couple of months, Bashota and Ngadhnjim Kastrati, RTK’s General Director, were grilled about these employments by two parliamentary commissions that oversee the RTK.

Bashota admitted that his son-in-law had been hired, while Kastrati defended the employment of Thaci family members, claiming that MPs should not interfere in recruitment processes.

However, citing BIRN’s investigations and other violations, Fadil Hoxha, head of RTK’s Independent Workers’ Union, met Glauk Konjufca, speaker of parliament, on May 6, and submitted a request for parliament, as the broadcaster’s oversight body, to dismiss the board.

Finally, on Tuesday, the Parliamentary Committee on Public Administration, Local Government, Media and Regional Development voted to dismiss the board, following a recommendation from the Parliamentary Committee on Budget, Labour and Transfers.

This sets the stage for parliament to dismiss the entire board of RTK in a session due next week.

Valon Ramadani, member of the committee from the ruling Vetevendosje party, on Tuesday said that RTK needs change.

“RTK needs reform and more accountability. The state budget allocates it around 15 million euros a year, and we don’t know where this money is being spent,” Ramadani said.

He was referring to claims that management has not allowed the National Audit Office to audit RTK, although it is common practice for the national auditor to audit public institutions.

Although RTK refused auditing in the past, on Tuesday the board said it had informed the National Audit Office that it was ready for a financial audit, while citing “legal limitations” over whether the broadcaster should be subject to such a process.

Armend Muja, a Vetevendosje MP, told BIRN that they recommended the dismissal of the board because of “their professional inability and continuous failure to implement their duties”.

Doarsa Kicaj, head of the media committee, read out some of the recommendations from the budget committee, which listed a number of issues with the board.

Kicaj highlighted the budget committee’s finding that RTK’s management had refused to be audited, and the failure to comply with procurement procedures and compile a legally required long-term strategy.

“If all these issues are not important to you, it’s painful,” Kicaj said, adding that the broadcaster needs to be accountable for receiving millions of euros of taxpayers’ money a year.

However, representatives of the opposition parties in the commissions, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the Democratic League for Kosovo, LDK, and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, are either objecting or absenting themselves from the debate about the board’s dismissal.

One of PDK’s representatives on the budget committee, Mergim Lushtaku, said the findings of the committee were not enough evidence to initiate the dismissal of the board.

Lushtaku conceded that RTK was not in good shape but insisted that the board should not be dismissed for what he described as political reasons.

The LDK representative on the committee, Agim Veliu, recently sacked as head of the LDK branch in Podujevë, where he was mayor, claimed that sacking the board was a political act, and an attempt to capture a public media that should be independent.

The day the parliamentary commission approved the request to dismiss the RTK board, Enver Hoxhaj, acting head of the biggest opposition party, the PDK, accused Vetevendosje and Prime Minister Albin Kurti of trying to control the media and public opinion.

“What we in the PDK have warned about is happening; two things characterise this government: political fraud in the absence of a proper government programme, and authoritarianism as the only way they know,” Hoxhaj posted on Facebook. The board has also said the proposed dismissal is a violation of the Law on RTK.

“The political fight against this media, constructed over ‘alternative facts’, is unjust and is aimed at instrumentalising the public broadcaster for political reasons,” the board said in its reaction on the day the recommendation for its dismissal was voted.

“RTK Board has been and remains open to provide answers to parliament as RTK’s founder on any issue related to its scope, under any situation and circumstances,” it added.

Warnings of possible politicisation

Illustration. Photo: BIRN/ Urim Krasniqi

A media lawyer, Flutura Kusari, told BIRN that she welcomes the initiative to dismiss the board.

“The misuses that have happened over the decades should end. It is important that those responsible for destruction or allowing the regress of RTK to be held accountable,” Kusari said.

But, besides the dismissal, Kusari said the way the governing coalition handles the situation afterwards is important, and future board members should not be politically affiliated.

“What should happen next is that Vetevendosje and other government coalition partners must immediately start the process of selecting new members and that those elected must not be political figures. They should not elect anyone who has supported Vetevendosje, as it is very important that the election of a new board is not questioned by anyone,” Kusari added.

Arta Berisha, a media expert, says that in recent years RTK has lost its primacy in Kosovo’s media scene.

“With its budget and public responsibility, which it enjoys by law, RTK should have been in front of the changes that came as a result of the internet … and not remain hostage to those who have gone too far, publishing misleading and disinformation content,” he said.

Vulnerable to government pressure

In its 2020 Progress Report, the European Commission ruled that Kosovo’s public broadcaster “remains vulnerable to political pressure and influence”.

“To date, the broadcaster remains directly state-funded, with its budget determined annually by the Assembly [parliament]. This undermines its independence, weakens its long-term sustainability and leaves it prone to political influence,” the report said.

RTK was established by the UN provisional administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, in September 1999.

Initially, it was financed through compulsory monthly payments, with each family owning a TV paying 3.5 euros via their electricity bill.

In 2009, Kosovo’s Constitutional Court suspended this way of financing. Pending an amendment to the law, RTK has been financed directly by the state budget since.

In 2012, four years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, parliament approved a law on RTK but it has not resolved the issue of its property.

In 2016, the broadcaster faced an eviction ultimatum by the Kosovo Agency of Privatisation for illegally occupying the premises of the now-defunct Radio Television of Pristina, RTP. However, the ultimatum was never applied.

“The current board has not proposed any strategy to ensure adequate, sustainable and transparent financing,” the Commission wrote in its justification for the board’s dismissal.

Often accused of over-employment, in 2020 RTK reported 1,024 employees including 806 with regular contracts and 216 others working part time as journalists, actors or correspondents. The report says that 68.5 percent of RTK’s budget goes on salaries.

Media expert Arta Berisha says it is important for RTK to have professionals in its ranks while politics should not interfere in its job.

“RTK should have autonomy and function in line with professional norms, oriented toward ethics and in the service of the public,” Berisha said.

Flutura Kusari meanwhile thinks that RTK would have a future if those responsible for “its destruction” face justice.

“The motion to dismiss the board is only the first step which should be followed by a parliamentary and criminal inquiry. There is no future if those who have taken RTK to the brink of destruction are not held accountable,” Kusari concluded.

Attacks on Moldovan Journalists Increased in 2020, Report Says

The number of attacks on journalists and media representatives in Moldova increased significantly in 2020, according to a media report on such attacks in the post-Soviet space by Justice for Journalists, an NGO based in London.

The study identified 68 attacks or threats against professional and civilian media workers and editorial offices of print and online publications in Moldova in 2020.

About 49 of the 68 attacks were non-physical, however, some in cyberspace, including campaigns to discredit or illegally obstruct journalists and deny access to information, or other forms of harassment, intimidation and pressure on social networks. Non-physical attacks included defamation and libel cases against the media or media personnel.

Four of the five physical attacks on journalists recorded in 2020 were initiated by the State Guard and Protection Service, the police, or the Russian military stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria.

“Three out of five cases of physical attacks on media workers involved physical attacks and threats to the life, freedom and health of journalists who covered the protests [that year],” the report said.

“In 2020, the media and journalists were not adequately protected by current legislation [of Moldova]. Even though media outlets are no longer closed in Moldova, and the print media are no longer seized, illegal sanctions and intimidation of journalists remain routine,” the study said.

The number of incidents against journalists increased by almost 20 per cent compared to 59 registered in 2019, according to Justice for Journalists.

All the cases are shown on the Media Risk Map, which covers the period from 2017 onwards. Most attacks took place during protests and important political events in 2020, many of them related to the presidential electoral campaign.

The report includes statistical data for daily monitoring of attacks on media employees in 12 post-Soviet countries.

Albania Parliament’s Race to Fill Media Board Causes Alarm

Albania’s parliament on Monday announced vacancies for four positions on the board of the country’s Audio-visual Media Authority, AMA, without waiting for the new parliament elected in the April 25 elections to give its view, prompting concerns about the creation of a one-sided board supportive of Edi Rama’s ruling Socialists.

The decision follows the election of four members of the board of Albania’s public broadcaster, two of whom have a clear political affiliation.

Both boards should by law be politically independent, but their members in practice are widely seen as representatives of the parties who propose them in parliament.

Moreover, the current parliamentary opposition bench comprises a number of MPs who have meanwhile gone over to the government side, causing concern that the new boards will be totally dominated by Socialist Party supporters.

Koloreto Cukalli, head of the Albania Media Council, an NGO based in Tirana, said it looked like a power grab by the Socialists that could damage the credibility of the AMA for years.

“Such institutions should be independent and not, as they have been till now, cross-party boards,” Cukalli said, citing an opinion of the Venice Commission. “If the current parliament elects all of them [the board members], the AMA’s reputation will suffer even more,” he added.

Elvin Luku, head of Medialook, a think tank based in Tirana, added that the current parliament lacked the credibility to elect the new board members, and should leave the task to September, when the new parliament meets.

“The election of the board members of the public broadcaster by the current parliament poses concerns in terms of political independence,” Luku told BIRN.

“We already have a problem with editorial independence and the editorial freedom of the media, so it is of crucial importance that the next parliament elects the AMA board members, not this one”, he said.

The Media Commission of parliament debated the candidates for membership of the public broadcaster board on 26 February.

The law grants the opposition in parliament the right to veto some of the candidates, a right deigned to stop the majority party from imposing its choice. Klajdi Qama, an opposition MP, exerted this right, according to the Commission report on the meeting.

Less then two months later, however, Qama became a Socialist Party candidate in the elections. Despite that, he is still nominally representative of the opposition in the current parliament – one of several MPs from the former opposition that has gone over to the ruling Socialist side.

Other MPs, also nominally representing the opposition, have consistently voted in favour of the government, granting the Socialists a de facto supermajority that will end only when the current parliament is dissolved.

Because of this, the boards of various independent institutions are now seen as tools of the ruling Socialists and not, as before, as representing both the government and opposition.

The last elections, which the Socialists again won, took place on April 25 but the previous parliament is still sitting and won’t likely be dissolved until July 7. The new parliament is expected to meet on 9 September.

“Personally, I would prefer to have AMA board vacancies filled by the next parliament,” media expert Luku told BIRN, pointing out that the vacancies were created in 2018 and 2019, so waiting a few more months will not make much difference.

Poland to Open Investigation into Belarus Hijacking of Ryanair Flight

Polish Prosecutor General and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro on Monday ordered an investigation into the forced landing of a Polish-registered airplane by the Belarusian authorities and the subsequent removal of an opposition activist who enjoyed protected status in Poland.

Poland is on the frontline of the EU’s diplomatic war with Belarus and its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who together with scores of Belarusian officials are under EU sanctions, including travel bans and assets freezes, imposed following the disputed August 2020 election and subsequent crackdown on protestors.

Poland has been vocal in its support of the Belarusian opposition, offering protection to exiles and providing Lukashenko critics with a house in Warsaw to use as their headquarters. The Lukashenko regime has retaliated by targeting members of the Polish minority in Belarus: in the last few months, several Poles in Belarus have been arrested, including Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and member of the Association of Poles in Belarus.

The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was crossing Belarusian airspace when the authorities there, reportedly on Lukashenko’s orders, used a false bomb alert and a fighter jet to force the flight carrying Roman Protasevich to land in Minsk, where security services boarded the plane and arrested the opposition activist.

The incident, which has caused outrage across Europe and was described by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as “an unprecedented act of state terrorism”, prompted prosecutors in Poland to open an investigation linked to two articles in the Polish criminal code.

One concerns the use of deception or threat of direct violence to take control of an aircraft, which in this case was officially registered in Poland, giving a legal basis for the investigation as the plane is considered Polish territory. The other concerns the unlawful deprivation of freedom of Protasevich, who last year was given protected status in Poland, allowing him to move freely inside the EU, as well as the other passengers.

The 26-year-old journalist is one of the founders of Telegram channel NEXTA, which played a prominent role in the organisation of protests against Lukashenko throughout the second half of last year. At least part of NEXTA’s content had been uploaded from Poland, which hosts a sizeable community of Belarusian exiles, including the channel’s founders and other opposition leaders. Protasevich was no longer living in Poland.

“I have asked the European Council President to expand tomorrow’s European Council agenda and discuss immediate sanctions against A. Lukashenka regime,” Prime Minister Morawiecki tweeted on Sunday night. “Hijacking of a civilian plane is an unprecedented act of state terrorism. It cannot go unpunished.”

Protasevich faces charges in Belarus of inciting public disorder and social hatred, carrying a jail sentence of up to 12 years if convicted. He is also on a list of terrorists compiled by Belarusian authorities and, if officially charged with terrorism, could face the death penalty. The terrified young man reportedly pleaded with the airline crew not to land the plane, saying he would face the death penalty if it did. Belarusian security operatives were reportedly on the plane, which was eventually allowed to fly to its destination in Lithuania after several hours.

The Czechs have joined its neighbour Poland in protesting the actions of the Belarusian regime, though there has been no official reaction yet from Hungary, Slovakia or a joint Visegrad Four statement. However, Katalin Cseh, a Hungarian MEP from the opposition Renew group wrote in a Facebook post: “The detention of the Belarusian activist is unacceptable – Europe must act!… The Hungarian government and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó must stop their harmful practice of vetoing joint EU action. Instead of supporting dictatorships, the Hungarian government must finally stand up for the protection of our democratic values.”

Romanian Police Academy Chiefs Sentenced for Threatening Journalist

The former dean of Romania’s Police Academy, Adrian Iacob, and his former deputy, Mihail Marcoci, have each received suspended prison sentences of three years for instigating a fellow officer to blackmail a journalist who had revealed corruption at the institution.

The pair will also have to serve 120 days of community work and have been ordered to compensate the victim with 80,000 lei (more than 16,200 euros), the Bucharest Court of Appeal said on Monday. The verdict is not final and can be appealed.

The threatening message was sent via SMS in April 2019 to the cellphone of Emilia Seran, a journalist with Romania’s publication PressOne who had exposed the dean’s plagiarism of more than two-thirds of his thesis as well as other similar cases among the institution’s professors.

“We are sending this message with the aim of preventing what will follow, everything depends on you,” the SMS began. “Stop all your ongoing activities… if you don’t want that a calvary [crucifiction] starts,” it went on.

Iacob and Marcoci resigned from the Police Academy soon after anti-corruption prosecutors started investigating them on May 24 in 2019 over the threatening message.

Sercan has continued exposing widespread plagiarism among the Academy’s top officials and professors. According to the journalist, 74.3 of the theses conducted at the institution between 2011 and 2016 are suspected of plagiarism. 

The Police Academy lost its right to award doctorates in October 2020 by order of the Minister of Education, Monica Anisie, who also ordered a restructuring of the corruption-plagued institution.

On May 13 this year, the Minister of the Interior, Lucian Bode, announced the dismantling of the two doctoral schools within the Police Academy, which, he admitted, “have done great damage to the institution’s image”.

Bode also announced an overhaul of the Interior Ministry’s educational bodies that will include setting up two new faculties, one for police and another for firefighters, as well as the signing of new professors “with an unquestionable academic reputation”.

Croatian President Condemned for Rant Against HRT Reporters

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic drew condemnation on Thursday after he insulted reporters from the public broadcaster Croatian Radio Television, HRT, in the coastal city of Split, accusing them of being tricksters, mercenaries and an embarrassment to the country.

The Union of Croatian Journalists, SNH, and the local branch of the Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND, which gathers HRT reporters, said they “strongly condemned” Milanovic’s verbal attack and his “harmful generalization”, although they themselves “persistently warn of the dubious editorial policy and transparency” of HRT’s current and past administrations.

“Journalists at Croatian Radio Television do their job honestly and responsibly. Most are underpaid, with a salary lower than the Croatian average. They are not responsible for the editorial policy of people who are mostly appointed in agreement with the governing structures,” they noted.

Milanovic quarrelled with the reporters after being asked about Wednesday’s edition of HRT’s TV show Otvoreno [“Open”], which among others hosted law professor Zlata Djurdjevic, who is the president’s candidate to be the next Supreme Court president.

He accused Mislav Togonal, editor of Otvoreno, of having deceived Djurdjevic because he had included “a fourth person in the show, contrary to the agreement”, who is not a candidate for the post of Supreme Court president but who is Djurdjevic’s “colleague from the faculty with whom she is not in a good relationship”.

“Your colleague [Togonal] is an average trickster,” Milanovic told Ivana Silovic, an HRT reporter, in front of her colleagues.

He then asked another journalist if he was also from HRT, and when the journalist said he was, Milanovic said he wanted to talk to other reporters, calling HRT “disgraceful mercenaries”.

“You are usurping space, let [us hear from] other television stations … You are mercenaries of one [political] option, that’s a disgrace,” Milanovic said, suggesting that HRT was under the strong editorial influence of the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.

“Do not be in solidarity with HRT, these journalists are the only ones who know that they will receive a salary,” Milanovic told the other journalists present.

HRT condemned Milanovic, describing the tirade as “an attack from a position of power on journalistic freedoms and on the editorial policy of the public media service”.

Having made a promising start to his five-year term last year, the President has turned many of his own supporters against him by engaging in verbal campaigns against all who criticise him.

However, some in the public share his belief that HRT is politically slanted, criticizing HRT’s editorial policy and claiming it censors its journalists and does not always act as a public service.

The SNH and HND said that if Milanovic really wants to warn about the situation in the public television, “those to whom it applies should be named” and that the two attacked reporters “certainly do not belong to them”.

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