ROMANIA'S HIGHEST court has quashed a Bill that would have forced television and radio broadcasters to give equal airtime to "good" and "bad" news stories.
The Bill was passed unanimously by Romania's upper house of parliament, the senate, and had only required the signature of president Traian Basescu to become law, prompting a volley of complaints from major media watchdogs.
"Prescribing, or even defining good versus bad news, is a severe political intrusion into editorial freedom," said Miklos Haraszti, media monitor for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
"I do not see how ordering editors to carry 50 per cent good news could 'help improve the general climate and give people a balanced view of everyday life', as argued by the sponsors of the amendment," he added.
The Bill was proposed by members of the ruling Liberal Party and the opposition far-right Greater Romania Party, who claimed that a more "balanced" news agenda would improve the "mental and emotional" condition of the nation.
Some media groups suspected the Bill was intended to reduce the number of unflattering stories about Romania's politicians, who are notorious for corruption and incompetence and whose exploits often dominate national news broadcasts.
Advocates of the Bill proposed that Romania's National Audiovisual Council would decide what is "positive" and "negative" news - but the council itself rejected the job.
"News is news," said council chairman Rasvan Popescu.
"It is neither positive or negative. It simply reflects reality. I don't believe that the introduction of such a quantitative criteria can work. Events cannot be programmed, nor can minds."
