CNA meeting – blocked because of OTV; some members accuse political presure

3 members left a CNA meeting after heated discussions around OTV; the meeting was left without cvorum following them leaving.

The most intense position was Narcisa Iorga’s, that disputed analyzing OTV case in the current meeting, as long as CNA didn’t reacted while Dan Diaconescu’s TV was broadcasting political advertising outside the campaign, an action forbidden by the law

Iorga: “For 2 years, OTV made political advertising outside the campaign and only got minor sanctions. As long as we allowed for 2 years to make a total out of limits political advertising outside electoral campaign and as long the prime-minister comes and attentions CNA for not sanctioning OTV, I tell you I do refuse to discuss OTV case in this situation”

Romanian Prime-Minister Victor Ponta said, on Monday, that he demands “not as prime-minister, but as Parliament representative, for CNA to apply the law for everybody.

Iorga was the 1^st one to leave CNA meeting, followed shortly by Valentin Jucan and Valeriu Deacă

Accusing political pressure, 5 CNA members write to Ponta

Narcisa Iorga, Gelu Trandafir, Ioan Onisei, Valentin Jucan and Valeriu Deaca signed a letter addressed to Romanian prime-minister Victor Ponta, having as subject OTV’s case and their decision to not discuss the campaign monitoring.

From the letter:

• We refused to take part today to the meeting that aimed to analyze the way the voting day was reflected by the main central TV stations, as, on December 9^th, CNA president rejected our proposal to evaluare live the shows that were broadcasting on all TVs”
• CNA meeting on December 9^th wasn’t legally programmed as there never happened, during the last 5 years, for CNA president to demand officially the members to meet during elections or referendums day, in spite of persistant demands members made. Each time, CNA president said it is incorrect to apply sanctions just after seeing live shows, without any written monitoring reports
• We consider that CNA activity is under political pressure, which brings prejudices to CNA’s status as public autonomous and impartial authority

Translation provided by AdHugger