Jurnalul National Sued Romania’s Government Under The Romanian FOIA Law

Jurnalul National daily sued the Romanian Government this week, under the country’s version of FOIA, for failing to make public the record of people entering the Government headquarters and meeting PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, within a specific time-line, as the paper had requested.

Why the record of entries inside Tariceanu’s office was important? Because it was there where he summoned the minister of justice Monica Macovei to meet one of his best friends, Dinu Patriciu, who is also the president of Romania’s second largest oil company Rompetrol Group NV.

Only that Patriciu was indicted at the time, as he still is, for appropriating some 600 million euros of state owned money, during the privatization operation of the most modern refinery Romania had at Midia Navodari, which is now owned by Rompetrol.

The scandal irrupted early this year around Patriciu’s alleged attempt to put pressure on the judiciary, via Tariceanu and Macovei. Nothing was proved though, and all three admitted to have met only once.

But Jurnalul National found out that the three of them met several times. This was not confirmed by either of the parties involved in the scandal.

It was for this reason that the paper asked access to the record of entries in the Government building: to find out who lied, if they did so. Our information was that in 2005 the three met four times: on April 12, May 26, September 8, and October 3.

Friday we tried to find out Tariceanu’s stance on the issue of free access to public information. He paid lip-service, saying his government "always gave all the necessary support" to the issue, but then excused himself from a line of questioning, saying he was in a hurry to reach the Rapid - Steaua European quarterfinal.

"If truly embracing transparency why not make public then the entrance registry?" asked one reporter.

At this point spokesperson Oana Marinescu came to Tariceanu’s rescue saying the answer stayed with the SPP, the Romanian version of the US Secret Service, since they have in charge all such records.

Problem is we did ask the SPP for the records, and they took cover behind the same transparency law we placed out claim under, saying the record also keept personal data of sensitive nature.

Well, we went only for the people’s names in that registry, not for their social security numbers, which could be deleted, by the way, in the copy of records delivered to Jurnalul national.

When we pressed ahead and asked Tariceanu if he deemed the names of persons to be "classified information" he made a hurried escape towards his motorcade.

Jurnalul National had the support of liberal MP Mona Musca, the parent of the Romanian FOIA legislation, who said that "all information which results from public funding is public, except those specifically classified."

But Musca is also one of the most critic members of PNL, the party Tariceanu is heading. Last year she resigned her position of culture minister citing dissent with Tariceanu’s political attitude, who first said he would resign, to later change his mind and stay in office.