Ms Brindusa Armanca, a journalist from the Public Romanian Television, was fired recently for an internet posting. She was accused of spreading negative opinions about the public broadcaster via a discussion list on the internet. The discussion list is FreeEx, a public online forum dedicated to journalists hosted by Yahoo. The list is part of a Freedom of Expression Project Romania, an initiative started in 1999 to defend freedom of speech in Romania, make government officials recognise the journalist status and generally raise awareness on the importance of freedom of speech and the frequent cases of its violation in Romania. In 2003 the program was financially supported by the Open Society Institute, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the International Federation of Journalists.

Ms Armanca announced she will appeal the decision in court.

Report in the Rumanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei (14.01.2003)
http://www.evenimentulzilei.ro/investigatii/?news_id=142770

Freedom of Expression Project
http://www.freeex.org/en/index_en.html

(Contribution by Bogdan Manolea, Romanian legal expert)