Reality Plus has been left without a license. A CNA member tells 'how they proved to lie' / Last night's post reaction

In front of the Council, the lawyer of the Realitatea Plus station, Ioan Georgescu, claimed that “I paid the fines”, which dated back over two years.

On Tuesday, April 7, CNA decided to revoke the Realitatea Plus license for 28 fines worth over 600,000 lei, dating from 2024.

The station's lawyer, Ioan Georgescu, said that, in fact, the station paid, but that he has no proof. And he asked for a few days' respite, “so that we can show proof of payment.”

“We can't negotiate the law,” said Valentin Jucan, the CNA member who called for the lifting of the license. With two exceptions, who withdrew from the vote, CNA members decided to revoke the license for Reality TV. In the same meeting, the Gold FM radio station also lost its license, also for non-payment of fines.

The difference compared to the way Romania TV reacted

Invited to the Media Page shortly after the vote, Mircea Toma, member of the CNA, explained that there was no rush by the council. “I warned them since February. And Realitatea Plus, and Romania TV, which were listed with unpaid debts”, explained Toma, when asked by journalist Petrișor Obae.

Romania TV immediately sent, on the same day in February, the proof of the payment it had made, apologizing for failing to present it. Realitatea Plus preferred, Toma claimed, to ignore the CNA warning. And in the meeting that came two months later, “they lied, made fun of the law, in a silly style,” said Toma.

What happened during the break?

The CNA member recounted that the “lie”, his phrase, became clear when they took a break from the meeting. “That's when the payment orders started pouring in by email,” he explained.

But the law, Toma argued, requires you to pay and show proof within 6 months. Because otherwise, he said, everyone would be two years late on the payments and then say they have proof of payment, only to be caught.

The argument of those who voted to withdraw the license was that the TV station had enough time to prove the payment. “Every person in Romania provides proof of payment so as not to conflict with the law, with the institutions,” said Vasile Bănescu, who voted for lifting the license.

“The revocation of the license is aimed at presenting the proof of payment of the fine within 6 months from its payment”, explained Valentin Jucan, the one who proposed the revocation, voted by his colleagues.

Realitatea Plus: “We demand the reconsideration of the measure in the CNA. It is excessive”

After CNA's decision, Realitatea invited dozens of guests to its studios, in Ancă Alexandrescu's show.

The station's representatives claimed that it was a coup d'état, a hypothesis on which George Simion, the leader of AUR, also focused his reaction.

Some of those present in the Realitatea studios said that it was an attack on “Romanian entrepreneurs, because Realitatea Plus is a Romanian business”.

The station officially claimed that it filed a request to reconsider the measure taken by the CNA, “which is excessive”.

The request was made by Realitatea PLUS lawyers and claims that “at the time the decision was adopted by the Council, the fines considered had already been paid by our company, and the pecuniary obligations that were the basis of the discussion had been extinguished. Under these conditions, the adopted measure reflects an excessively formal application of the law text, ignoring the real legal situation existing at the time of the vote”.