A rude President

Journalists are free. This is what Traian Basescu used to claim during the electoral campaign that made him a President. Another lie of this caricature character who represents, the way he does, the Romanian state. Ever since reaching Cotroceni Palace, he has been ceaselessly offending the fundamental liberties and rights of the press and its representatives. And the last incident by the Black Sea shore, when, two days ago, Basescu called journalists rude simply because they dared film him while on public space, is the climax. It is Traian Basescu who is rude, actually.
Let's remember some things about the troubled divorce between Traian Basescu and the press. The first thing the President did after just claiming "Journalists are free" was a public, noisy and brutal refusal to allow journalists, just like under different administrations, their right to accompany him in his visits abroad. The refusal grew even more explicit when the reporters filmed the wind bringing up the presidential lock of hair, never seen before. It was in 10 Downing Street, when Basescu was saying goodbye to Tony Blair, the official he had met with on the famous Bucharest-London-Washington axis. After all, why did I say then and why am I saying now that, by banning journalists' access to the presidential aircraft, Basescu tried to restrain press freedom? After all, why wasn't he right to say that journalists, if they wanted to watch his activity abroad, should take civil planes? The reason is simple. Any visit by a head of state calls for severe measures of protection and protocol. High level meetings are usually part of a whole net of foreign contacts, asking for fast trips from one office to the other. Journalists who are not in the official delegation stand poor chances to report on such meetings. Had Basescu truly wanted journalists to participate, without discrimination, in foreign events, by means different than traveling by the presidential plane, Presidency would have provided a charter at the expense of the press and to the benefit of the press as well. But it did not happen.
Basescu's incredible rudeness is visible in all the incidents ever since. All the gross insults for some journalists, newspapers, TV stations and press owners. It culminated two days ago by the seaside. Basescu called some journalists rude because they were filming him while he wasn't at work. It is time for public opinion to realize that Presidency employees, with Basescu's knowledge and even at his wish, inform journalists when he leaves for places on mortal purposes. They do it so that the media will show him doing what common mortals do. This is what happened in the referendum day and two days ago too.
The second thing public opinion should know is that a head of state has never got days off. This is one reason why his bodyguards never leave him and the wages they get comes from the public budget. As seen, he is neither criminally responsible when, while not in the office, he steals a journalist's cell phone.
Thirdly, any person, a head of state included, may be photographed and filmed by anyone when moving in public space. We have got a rude President !
P.S.: But the presidential flatterer in the person of Catalin Avramescu, whom Basescu has just bribed with membership to the Administration Council of the Romanian Public Television network, is not one of the rude journalists.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua Marti 19 Iunie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english