Predoiu's reaction, in the scandal triggered by the Police spokesperson after the Recorder investigation: “A man with a golden soul”
Interim Minister of Internal Affairs, Cătălin Predoiu, defended the spokesperson of the Romanian Police, Georgian Drăgan, who faced a wave of criticism for the way he reacted to the Recorder investigation “Enslaved Police”.
Predoiu described Drăgan as “a man with a golden soul”.
“I know Mr. Drăgan personally. I had the opportunity to interact with him in connection with certain missions. I know him well. He is a man with a golden soul. He is a man with an impeccable character and a clean mind,” said the minister on Tuesday, when asked by the Recorder, in a press conference in Constanța.
He claimed that the representative of the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police defends his colleagues with “passion” and “humanity” when “he knows he has arguments”.
“In no case, neither in the case of Mr. Drăgan, nor in the case of another colleague, is there a problem of not understanding the role of the media, freedom of expression, the right to criticize, the right to ask for clarifications. So, in short, I assure you with all the seriousness with which I can be credited that there is no such approach, neither spoken nor thought, in the case of Mr. Drăgan and within the Ministry of Internal Affairs in general,” Predoiu said.
A number of 44 non-governmental organizations and newsrooms, including HotNews, have asked the Minister of the Interior and the leadership of the Romanian Police to specify whether they stand by the statements made by Georgian Drăgan after the Recorder investigation “Enslaved Police”. In an open letter published by Active Watch on Monday, the signatories accuse the IGPR representative of discrediting journalists, sources and supporters of the publication.
“The Romanian Police did not claim and does not claim that the Recorder publication exceeded the legal framework of informing the citizens. (…) The position of the Romanian Police, on May 21, through the press conference, did not concern the freedom of the press or the journalistic activity of the Recorder, but the accuracy of some information and statements taken from the sources cited in the material, mainly from the two union leaders”, said the head of the institution, Benone Matei, quoted by the Recorder.
The Recorder investigation and Georgian Drăgan's reaction
Recorder published an investigation on Thursday in which it accuses that the Romanian Police “is deprofessionalized and kept under control by administrative mechanisms that push obedient, politically enslaved people into leadership positions”, talking about the “phenomenon” of appointments by proxy, which “creates a pyramidal hierarchy” and puts the institution “at the mercy of politicians”.
In response, Georgian Drăgan rejected the accusations as “unfounded, without any factual basis”, and accused an attempt to “destabilize the institutions of the Romanian state” and “exceeding the legal framework of public information”.
“In the material published today, only partial information was taken to help the goal pursued by publishing this material, namely the destabilization of the institutions of the Romanian state,” said the IGPR spokesperson at the time.
