European Federation of Journalists condemns Gov't decision to place public employees on furlough

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has signalled new threats to the mass media sector in Romania and sent the Romanian authorities a protest letter against the mechanism that will place the public employees on furlough for a temporary period, namely during the state of emergency generated by the COVID-19 outbreak. "The Romanian Government is preparing a mechanism to place the public employees on furlough for a temporary period during the state of emergency generated by the COVID-19 outbreak. These measures have been decided by the Government led by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban without having consultations with the representatives of the employees first, by ignoring social dialogue. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its Romanian affiliate FAIR-MediaSind to condemn such unilateral decision," reads a press release of the EFJ. The European Federation quoted FAIR-MediaSind, according to which the total lack of social dialogue determined the Ministry of Culture in Romania to make dangerous decisions for the 100,000 employees working in the creative sector. Besides the furlough measures, the Romanian trade union underscores the lack of measures that should have been taken to protect the health of the mass media employees and the high level of corruption at the national television broadcaster. "These antisocial measures lead to a violation of the freedom of information. EFJ denounced, the same as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), the recent Government Emergency Ordinance introducing excessive criminal sanctions for "fake news" on the virus. We ask the Romanian Government to start negotiations with the trade unions to solve all these problems," said the Secretary-General of the EFJ, Ricardo Gutierrez. The protest of the European Federation of Journalists has been sent to President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, the President of the Senate, Robert Cazanciuc, President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, the President of the Committee for Culture and Mass Media of the Senate, Lucian Romascanu, and the President of the Committee for Culture and Mass Media of the Chamber of Deputies, Gigel Sorinel Stirbu. FAIR-MediaSind, the only representative organization in the culture and mass media sector on Thursday asked the Government not to adopt the measure of placing the public employees on furlough, which will destroy the culture and mass media sector, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday. The lack of social dialogue with the representatives of the trade unions in the field generated the disastrous situation 100,000 employees in the cultural and mass-media sector are facing at present, said the MediaSind. (...) "Mass media institutions have vital importance to inform citizens during such tough times. But a media that is so vulnerable cannot guarantee the correctness of the information. The clearest example is that of the public television broadcaster, where (...) the employees are forced to go to work daily risking their lives, as the protective materials and protection measures are completely missing, despite what their leadership is saying," said the release of MediaSind. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Tilica, editor: Nicoleta Gherasi, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia)