FreeEx Report

December 28TH, 2003

Bucharest

New violent attack upon journalist

Csondy Szoltan, journalist from Hargita Nepe, was attacked and seriously
wounded by unknown persons on Friday the 26th of December. The journalist
was beaten by an aggressor in the staircase of the block of apartments
where he lives in Miercurea Ciuc. The aggressors hit him in the head with a
crowbar until the neighbours interfered.

As a result of the aggression, the journalist Csondy Szoltan has serious
head injury and an arm ligament fracture. This is not the first attack upon
Csondy Szoltan. He has also been attacked before, on September the 27th, by
a group of strangers, while he was investigating the setting on fire of
several cars in Miercurea Ciuc and the way the citizens of Miercurea Ciuc
were terrorized by the local mafia. At the beginning of October, the
journalist has published an article which incriminated the businessman
Csibi Istvan as the principal suspect in this aggression case.

This last attack took place despite the repeated warnings on this case
launched by "Adevarul" and "Academia Catavencu" newspapers and by NGO's,
through the Media Monitoring Agency and through The Convention of the Media
Organizations in Romania (COM).

This aggression case follows the violent attack against Ino Ardelean at
only 2 weeks. By failing to respond promptly or at all in some cases, the
authorities seem to be the only responsible part in those numerous
aggression cases against the press over the last year.

Moreover, we consider that the attitude of several high state officials
over this subject has even encouraged these attacks. We recall the
declaration of Prime Minister Nastase on December, 23rd: "If a simple
article would be a reason for fighting, then I should have beaten a
journalist per day". We remind the Prime Minister that 16 journalists have
been physically aggressed only this year. We believe that such a
disregarding attitude is irresponsible and we request the Prime Minister
and all the high state offcials to firmly blame any verbal and physical
aggression against journalists.

The Media Monitoring Agency requests the authorities to perform their
duties to prevent or solve such cases.



Media Monitoring Agency

______________________________________
Media Monitoring Agency - Academia Catavencu

Address: Ion Cāmpineanu Street, 20 A, Bl. 18 A, Scara A, Et. 2, App. 8,
Interfon 08, Sector 1, Bucharest
Phone/Fax: 0040-21- 315 23 13; Phone: 004-0721 200 459;

E-mail: agdemon@..., romania@...
Http://www.mma.ro; Http://www.freeex.org



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