Romania

[RO] CNA Sanctions Private Broadcaster

IRIS 2003-4:1/26

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

On 18 February 2003, the regulatory authority for electronic media, the Consiliul Na tional al Audiovizualului (National Audiovisual Council - CNA), imposed a fine of ROL 250 million (EUR 6956) on private TV broadcaster B1 TV for breaches of Articles 2, 3, 4 and 10 of Decision No. 78/2002 on the protection of minors (see IRIS 2002-10: 11).

The programme "Ma sina adevarului"("Lie detector"), shown on 13 February 2003, contained video footage of a minor being asked by his mother to recount in great detail how he had supposedly been sexually abused by his father. "Recording this material caused extremely serious psychological trauma to the child", said the CNA in its decision. The broadcaster had breached the aforementioned provisions by repeatedly using clips from the recording in trailers shown during prime-time some hours before the programme was broadcast, - a "regrettable case without precedent", according to the CNA.