On its 18th anniversary, Romanian Journalists Union launches MediaSind TV online platform

The Romanian Journalists Union launches on Friday, on its 18th anniversary, the MediaSind TV online platform, the union said in a release. "MediaSind TV, the new project to be launched today, will be an online communication platform for everyone in the big media family. MediaSind TV will be the instrument through which the voice of union members will be heard. This is the place to expose employers' abuses, share experiences, this is where all MediaSind members, regardless of where they work or whether they are freelancers, can publish their 'bothering' productions that are banned from release. This is the place to make heard our demands and grievances against injustice: mediasindtv.ro," the release states. The largest national media workers organisation, the Romanian Journalists Union MediaSind celebrates on Friday, April 12, 2019 the 18th anniversary of its being awarded by court legal personality. Throughout this time MediaSind has grown into a true brand for the Romanian trade union movement. The branches of the organization: MediaSind - TVR, MediaSind - Radio Romania, MediaSind - AGERPRES, MediaSind - ONLINE and MediaSind Freelancers bring together workers from Romania's main public and private media institutions. "The Romanian Journalists Union MediaSind emerged as a result of various failed trade union projects and out of the need for an organization in the service of media workers. Unfortunately, many organization leaders have betrayed the people's trust, giving up the principles and the values of trade union solidarity. In exchange for petty personal benefits, some of them were 'bought' by employers seeking to stop them from defending the interests of the employees they represented, and make them just mimic trade union struggle," the release further notes. As the founding member of the FAIR-MediaSind Federation, the only representative organization for the Culture and Mass Media sector, the Romanian Journalists Union MediaSind has participated in several collective bargaining negotiations in several institutions in the trade, obtaining important financial and professional benefits for the employees. One of the organization's most important achievements is, according to the cited source, the imposition of the conscience clause, which provides real protection for journalists against pressure of any kind with regard to editorial content. "With the support of the European Federation of Journalists and of the International Federation of Journalists, SRJ MediaSind has actively campaigned for the rejection of several government measures as well as bills aimed at restricting the journalists' freedom of expression or the excessive politicization of public media institutions. MediaSind has won in court dozens of lawsuits for the recovery of the pay rights of its own members and has publicly sanctioned abuses by dictatorship-prone managers of public media outlets," the release states. Together with the main media professional organizations, SRJ MediaSind participated in the negotiation and signing of the Journalist's Uniform Code of Deontology and, together with the AGERPRES National Agency and the main universities in the country, launched the ReStart Project for quality journalism in support of the students seeking to become professional journalists. AGERPRES (RO - author: Nicoleta Gherasi, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)