Freedom of expression in Romania looked worse in 2007 than it did in 2006 due to both the expansion of the political influence upon the media and the "regressive" legislation in the field, a Freedom of the Press in Romania 2007 report of the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) shows.
The report was set up within the FreeEx program and was officially presented on Monday. The document gathers all important events that influenced the freedom of the press in Romania last year.
According to the report, last year, political pressure increased upon public institutions like Romania's National Television, TVR which has been the object of an major political assault. Moreover, the continuous fight against governing Liberals and Social Democrats for more control in the sector weakened the power of the media.
A Constitutional Court decision that rebukes a previous decision to exclude libel and insult from the Criminal Code was also seen as a major setback for Romanian press last year.
