Public protest of dozens of institutions and names in the press after the “repeated and aggressive” attacks on the Recorder by some magistrates and some television stations, after the documentary “Captured Justice”

In an open letter, journalists from several newsrooms in Romania, representatives of civil society and NGOs, denounce and condemn the attacks launched by some state institutions and by so-called journalists who aim to promote conspiracy theories and discredit, as well as those from within the judicial authority, against the Recordar newsroom.

“The last week's assault on the Recorder newsroom – materialized by innuendo, invective and insults – is, fundamentally, an assault on an entire profession,” reads the letter, which speaks of the central role of the journalistic profession, “in informing citizens about how people who hold public office carry out their duties.”

“Public office exists to serve the public, and the journalist's mission is to constantly question those in positions of power and decision-making about how they carry out their responsibilities.”

The signatories denounce that some of the worst attacks launched after the publication of the Recorder documentary “Captured Justice” come from within the judiciary itself.

“We consider particularly serious the accusations made against the work of Recorder journalists in the press conference organized by the Bucharest Court of Appeal (CAB), as well as those in the press release of the Section for Judges of the Superior Council of the Magistracy”, according to the cited source.

The letter recalls the moment in the extraordinary session of the CAB chair, when the leadership of the Court referred to the Recorder investigation, accusing it of being part of a “campaign to destabilize the judicial power”, which it sees as a “public incitement against the constitutional order”.

Moreover, Liana Arsenie, the president of the CAB, made the same serious accusation against the Romanian Television – public institution that rebroadcast the Recorder documentary “Captured Justice”.

The statements from the same register were also made in a press release published by the Section for Judges of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, say the signatories of the letter.

These attacks take place in the conditions where both Liana Arsenie, the president of the CAB, and Lia Savonea, the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, refused, in writing, the interview invitations addressed by the Recorder before the publication of the press material. By their refusal, the two chose not to express their point of view regarding the information presented, although they were explicitly offered this possibility, and later they publicly contested the content of the documentary.

“The speech of the judicial authority to the journalism practiced by the Recorder editorial office – a journalism exercised, and in this case, exclusively in the public service – manifested itself in a record never seen before in the entire history of the judicial system.”

The organizers have left HERE a link where the letter can be signed by those who wish.