The issue of
\nphone interceptions in Romania remains a key concern for civil society, even
\ntoday, 26 years since the fall of Communism. Many Romanians still feel they are
\nbeing watched and monitored, although they have nothing to hide, and phone conversations
\nbeing constantly intercepted is a common topic of discussion. The legislation
\nadopted after the fall of Communism in 1989, in particular the Law regarding
\nthe processing of personal data and the protection of private life in the field
\nof electronic communications has tried to correct some of the errors of the
\npast, by adapting to the European norms, which are generally applicable in the
\ndemocratic countries. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These norms have actually been the topic of many debates
\nand keep being the focus of Europeans’ attention, now faced with issues such as
\nterrorism and the refugee crisis. Despite the changes occurring after 1989,
\nmost of them good, there are still divergences between civil society, who
\nwishes a higher level of personal data protection, and the specialized state
\ninstitutions, which want more prerogatives allowing them to discover in due time,
\nincluding by phone tapping, crimes or threats to national security. The most
\nrecent example is the rejection by the Constitutional Court of some provisions
\nin the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allow certain employees with the police
\nand other specialized bodies to conduct criminal investigations, alongside
\nprosecutors. These ‘other specialized bodies’, says the Court, are not defined,
\nneither directly, nor indirectly, in the Code of Criminal Procedure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first to
\nreact to the Court’s ruling, which is as powerful as any law, was the National
\nAnti-corruption Directorate, which has, in the past years, set records in
\nunveiling serious cases of corruption. A beneficiary of the information
\nprovided by the specialized bodies, the Romanian Intelligence Service in
\nparticular, the Directorate will thus benefit from less support from the
\noutside and will have to extend its own technical surveillance network. One
\nfirst effect regards the way in which surveillance warrants will be enforced.
\nAccording to the law, the only structures of the Prefect’s Office that benefit
\nfrom such technical equipment are the National Anti-corruption Directorate and
\nDIICOT – Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and
\nTerrorism. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The National Anticorruption Directorate does have a technical
\nsupport service, but DIICOT does not; which means that more money will be
\nneeded. The chief-prosecutor of the Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta
\nKovesi, has stated she is convinced the government will find a solution to
\nincrease the Directorate’s budget by at least 10 million Euros and to also add
\n130 more staff. She has also warned that, in the absence of this, the Department’s
\nactivity might slow down, even if Romania will keep the right track in the
\nfight against corruption. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The issue of phone interceptions in Romania remains a key concern for civil society, even today, 26 years since the fall of Communism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":63772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[28992,38391,30480],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-67785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-anti-corruption","tag-phone-tapping","tag-romanias-constitutional-court"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n