May 26, 2017
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 26.05.2017, 13:57
SUMMIT Heads of government from the world’s most industrialized countries have convened in Sicily for a G7 summit. This is the first G7 summit attended by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. According to the BBC, agreements on fighting extremist violence and talks with the Japanese Prime Minister on threats posed by North Korea are high on the agenda. The summit is also expected to see divergent opinions regarding the climate change or trade.
DRILL 4 thousand troops from Romania and other NATO countries are participating until June 16th in ‘Noble Jump 2007’, the biggest multinational NATO exercise this year on the territories of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. The Romanian troops will be joining their counterparts from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Norway, Albania and Bulgaria and will make use of 500 technical means, the Romanian Defence Ministry informs. The drill will culminate with the artillery fire in the shooting range of Cincu, in central Romania. ‘Noble Jump 2007’ is aimed at testing the operational capabilities of the elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force and the level of implementing the action plan for increasing the Alliance’s Response in Bulgaria and Romania.
MEDIA Mass-media in Romania cannot accomplish its main responsibility, namely to inform the public and is repeatedly acting as a mouthpiece for various political and trade interests violating journalistic norms of unbiased, balanced and complete information. This is the main conclusion of the report Media Pluralism Monitor 2016, an instrument monitoring the risks of the media pluralism in the EU and outside set up by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom with EU support. According to the report, although legislative provisions in Romania are offering a solid framework, the inconsistent implementation of these provisions and practices are leading to these risks. The report also says that the development of Romania’s mass-media market is dominated by televison; the Internet use is on the rise and the printed press users are diminishing. Rapid Internet development and the availability of free content is making the survival of traditional publications very difficult in a country where people aren’t used to reading and paying for the news, the report also says.
MAYOR The mayor general of Chisinau, the capital of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country, the pro-Western Liberal Dorin Chirtoaca was detained last night by anti-corruption prosecutors for 72 hours for influence peddling. Deputy mayor Nistor Grozavu, a head of department and several other persons had been arrested in the same file. Upon Chirtoaca’s direction they had allegedly forged a public bid for paid parking lots around the capital. The city hall is being picketed by Chirtoaca’s supporters who say that he is the victim of political revenge. Chirtoaca got elected in 2007 to become at the age of 39, the youngest mayor of a European capital city. Chirtoaca is one of the most prominent leaders of the Liberal Party supporting the country’s EU and NATO accession and the union with Romania at the same time categorically opposing the pro-Russia direction promoted by socialist president Igor Dodon.
MEASLES A four-month girl died of measles complications, a disease she got from her minor mother in Romania’s rural area. This has been the sixth death caused by the disease in the county of Dolj, southwestern Romania and the 27th around Romania in the past months. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has called into attention the fact that the vaccination rate in Romania stays around 60% instead of a desired 95% and in order to stop these outbreaks the country might need compulsory vaccination. Since 2016 Romania has seen a series of measles outbreaks mainly in children under fifteen; 6 thousand cases of infection have been reported so far.
