The reaction of the EP vice-president, Victor Negrescu, after Russia’s threats to Ziare.com and the conviction of a Romanian journalist

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PSD MEP Victor Negrescu commented on Friday, October 25, Russia’s decision to propose the arrest, in absentia, of the Romanian journalist Mircea Barbu, as well as Roskomnadzor’s threats to Ziare.com, stating that he requested clear measures from the European Commission to respect the rights of journalists.

“These days, the Russian Federation launched a series of threats against journalists or publications from Romania. Russia’s decision to propose the arrest, in absentia, of the Romanian journalist Mircea Barbu, the threats of the Russian Embassy directed against the Hotnews.ro publication or the threats of Roskomnadzor to Ziare.com are just some of the recent attacks by the authorities of the Russian Federation on the independence of the press in Romania” , Negrescu wrote on Facebook.

Ziare.com received an official notice from the Russian agency Roskomnadzor, which deals with media censorship in Russia, to “remove” from the site a story about the death of a Kremlin colonel in 2023. The notice was received on Thursday, October 24 .

He said that he is in solidarity with journalists and publications in Romania under pressure, being himself, in turn, a former journalist.

“Thus, we asked the European Commission for clear measures to respect the rights and protect the journalists and the media reporting on the atrocities committed by the Federation,” Negrescu also said.

Roskomnadzor threat to Ziare.com

On June 5, 2023, the website ziare.com published a news story announcing the death of an important Russian officer. It is about Colonel Andrei Stesev, who was liquidated by the anti-Putin rebels in Belgorod.

“This Internet website, page, link contain(s) information prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation based on a court decision,” Ziare.com was notified by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state press censor agency.

The notification invokes a decision of the Central Court in Chita – Zabaykalsky Krai – an area in the south-west of Russia, a region located in the north of Mongolia, and asks Ziare.com to delete the published news.

“Notification about the deletion of prohibited information should be sent to zapret-info@rkn.gov.ru. In the case of deletion, information about domain names and URLs of web pages or network addresses is excluded from the Unified Register (for Internet sites containing information prohibited for public distribution in the Russian Federation, no),” the official act states received at the editorial office.