FOTP 2013 Full Report

Qatar has seven newspapers that publish in either Arabic or English, all of which areowned by members of the ruling family or their business associates. The state owns and operatesall broadcast media, and there are only two television networks in the country, Qatar TV and Al-Jazeera. While Qatar TV broadcasts mostly official news and progovernment perspectives, Al-Jazeera focuses its coverage on regional and global news, providing only sparse and uncriticalreports on local issues. Programming on local radio stations is more accommodating to criticismof government services and operations. The concentration of media ownership within the rulingfamily and the high financial costs and citizenship requirements for obtaining media licensescontinue to hinder the expansion and freedom of the press. Approximately 88 percent of thepopulation used the internet in 2012, with 70 percent of users relying on the web as their primarysource of news and information.RomaniaStatus: Partly FreeLegal Environment: 12Political Environment: 16Economic Environment: 14Total Score: 42Survey Edition 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Total Score, Status 44,PF 44,PF 43,PF 42,PF 41,PFPress freedom is protected by the constitution but weakened in practice by financial insecurityand overriding political and business interests. A series of political crises during 2012 placedadditional pressures on journalists and media outlets. After a lengthy period of legal ambiguity,libel was effectively decriminalized by a 2010 Supreme Court ruling. No major civil cases werereported in 2012. Journalists use Romania’s freedom of information law with decreasingfrequency as cash-strapped outlets’ commitment to investigative journalism dwindles, andofficials sometimes obstruct access to information on corruption or other sensitive topics.Appointments to the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) are politicized, and its capacity isinadequate, resulting in biased decision-making and ineffective regulation. The current council isseen as leaning toward the center-right opposition Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and PresidentTraian Băsescu. An emergency decree by the government two weeks before the December 2012elections hampered the CNA’s ability to punish media violations, suspending its rulings untilthey could be confirmed by the courts.The public television broadcaster, Televiziunea Română (TVR), continued to suffer frompolitical contestation and financial trouble in 2012. In May, shortly after a PDL-led governmentcollapsed and Victor Ponta of the Social Liberal Union (USL) was named prime minister, aUSL-backed TVR board member led a vote to fire the station’s editorial director, Dan Radu.Parliament approved a new board in June that did not include any representatives of the PDL;journalist Claudiu Săftoiu, a former intelligence chief, was appointed to lead the station. TheNational Liberal Party, part of the USL coalition, had nominated him for the post. TVR was deepin debt and announced plans in August to fire nearly a third of its staff, raising concerns aboutpoliticized dismissals.314