Romania

[RO] Rejected law on the Investigative Journalism Fund

IRIS 2016-2:1/24

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 4 November 2015, the Chamber of Deputies (lower Chamber of the Romanian Parliament) rejected the Propunerea legislativă privind înfiinţarea Fondului Special pentru Jurnalismul de Investigaţii (draft Law on the setting up of a Special Fund for Investigative Journalism). The draft Law had been rejected by the Senate (upper Chamber of the Romanian Parliament) on 25 February 2015. The decision of the deputies was final (see IRIS 2014-8/4).

The draft Law was intended, according to the proponents, to establish a Special Fund for Investigative Journalism meant to support through direct funding any action aimed at disclosing illegal practices that affect the state budget. The Fund would have financed individuals aged 18 and over and Romanian and foreign legal persons which made public any corruption, abuse of office, embezzlement, receiving of undue benefits, tax evasion or any acts or omissions under the criminal law, which by their nature are prejudicial to the state budget by an amount greater than or equal to LEI 100,000 (approximately EUR 22,075), using any medium of information (print, online, radio, television) or by complaints addressed directly to the investigating and prosecuting authorities.

The above-mentioned persons would have been entitled to receive, based on a request sent to the Minister of Finance, a funding from the Special Fund equal to two per cent of the reported injury, within 30 days after disbursement of the recovered amounts to the state budget. The Special Fund for Investigative Journalism should have been established as a special account in the State Treasury, financed by a two per cent relocation of recovered damage to the state budget in the above mentioned cases of unlawful actions, after a final and irrevocable judgments of courts.