Radio and TV fee– Ovidiu Miculescu: I challenge Liviu Dragnea’s accusations

Romanian MPs have voted in favour of the draft law on eliminating over 100 taxes.

România Internațional, 25.10.2016, 17:59

Romanian MPs on Tuesday passed by unanimous decision the draft law on the elimination of 100 taxes, including the radio and TV license fee, a law spearheaded by Social-Democratic leader, Liviu Dragnea, despite the advisory decision of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies issued on Monday. In its decision, the Committee opted for keeping the fee in place as source of funding for the two public institutions. Under the new law, Radio Romania and the Romanian Public Television are to be fully funded from the state budget.

Social-Democratic president Liviu Dragnea addressed the President and Director General of Radio Romania, Ovidiu Miculescu, in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies, claiming that he had threatened the leader of Social-Democratic MPs with respect to voting the draft law.

“As regards our budget for the public television and radio, I say it for the tenth and hundredth time, these two institutions are getting large amounts of money from the state budget, and this isnt affecting their independence. I want to ask Mr. Miculescu, here present, before the press and from the Parliament tribune, why he took the liberty of threatening the leader of the Social-Democratic group in Parliament. The Director of the public radio, saying: “Youll see whats going to happen to you. Is Mr. Miculescus attitude a show of independence?, Liviu Dragnea said, quoted by Agerpres news agency.

The Social Democratic leader went on to ask the President and Director General of the Public Radio whether he was appointed by a political decision and if so, who took this decision, whether he was appointed as a result of a contest and what that contest consisted in. The declarations were made after MPs adopted a draft law on the elimination of over 100 non-fiscal taxes, including the radio and television license fee.

In response to Mr. Dragneas accusations, the President and Director General of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Ovidiu Miculescu, said, among other things: “I firmly challenge the accusations of Mr. Liviu Dragnea, the President of the Social Democratic Party, made from the Chamber of Deputies tribune. Mr. Dragneas statement is blatantly false, which I can prove any time.

Outside my office as President and Director General of Radio Romania, an office which I have often used to express my deep concern and disappointment with this measure, I am an ordinary man, and I dont know how anyone could ever interpret the arguments I have raised as part of a debate as a threat. I have always highlighted the fact that this measure is seriously denting the independence and equidistance of the public radio service, preventing Radio Romania from carrying out the public mission it pledged to observe 88 years ago. I admit that sometimes I have been very vocal, something which I ask you to attribute to the energy and hope that Ive invested in the public radio, but I have never said anything that might be seen as a threat, no matter how vague the phrasing. Moreover, I publicly declare that this alleged telephone conversation with a leader of a parliamentary faction, which Mr. Dragnea mentioned, never took place, and I once again want to point out that everything he has said is blatantly false. What is happening right now is both frightening and outrageous. We are witnessing an unbelievable political ambush, whose sole purpose is to weaken and subsequently politicize Radio Romania.

If we have a closer look, we will notice a clash between what should remain an independent and equidistant public media on the one hand, and a political, or even “realpolitik media, I might say, on the other. The purpose the debate on the independence of public media, which never actually took place, has been hijacked and reinterpreted from a political point of view.

Public attention is being diverted from certain concepts and principles, and public opinion is being manipulated by means of ad hominem attacks. The first victims were Mr. Dragneas colleagues, who voted in the wake of the excitement stirred by this piece of news. Next in line are Radio Romanias millions of listeners, who will eventually and belatedly discover that the public radio is no longer their radio, that free, serious, unbiased, fair and trusted voice they know, but merely a subchapter in a Government budget.

Anything can be claimed about anyone in political statements, and when it finds itself at the center of such debates, public media risks losing every time, simply because it lacks the practice of such a manipulative, false and biased discourse of the type we have just witnessed.

The charges to be eliminated include the so-called green stamp duty for vehicles, fees levied by the National Pension Authority and the Trade Registry, consular and citizenship-related taxes and fees for issuing tax records and temporary passports.

Finance Minister Anca Dragu told Agerpres that the Government might refer this matter to the Constitutional Court: “We are looking into this option. I can tell you that the global impact stands at 1,6 billion lei, without mentioning the source of financing, as required under the Fiscal Liability Law, the Law on Public Finance and even the Constitution. The Government supports the elimination of some taxes, we have made this point earlier, but only as part of a reasonable financial effort, which we can sustain in 2017. According to Minister Dragu, the impact of eliminating the radio and TV license fee stands at 600 million lei.