Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the government of Romania on (a) improving media freedom and media pluralism in that country and (b) the activities of (i) Central Media Enterprise, (ii) Adrian Sârbu and (iii) Ronald Lauder.

Mr David Lidington

The British Embassy in Bucharest continues to follow the issue of media freedom in Romania, given its impact on the quality of democracy and on the rule of law. As part of the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), to which Romania has been subject since its EU accession, the European Commission has called on Romania to “review existing standards to safeguard a free and pluralist media”. We have worked closely with the European Commission and the Romanian government in encouraging full implementation of CVM recommendations including on the relationship between the media and state institutions. The Department has had no recent discussions with the government of Romania on the activities of Central Media Enterprise, Adrian Sarbu or Ronald Lauder.