Four independent media organizations expressed their deep concern today towards abuses committed by prosecutors against Romanian journalists in a classified information leak scandal.

A Moldovan correspondent for national newspaper Romania libera, Marian Garleanu, was retained for two days last week and another, Sebastian Oancea of the Ziua newspaper, had his home searched for holding and sharing secret documents belonging to the Romanian Defense Ministry.

The four organizations – the Media Monitoring Agency, the Center for Independent Journalism, the Media Organizations Convention and trade union MediaSind – consider the indictment and the arrest of journalists to be abusive and illegal as it breaches the Romanian Classified Information Law.

The legislation says only authorized personnel bear responsibility for the protection of classified information.