The bill providing that the meetings of the Government will be held behind closed doors is a political one. Such an opinion was stated by mass media experts, who said that this way they try to hide the dissention that may exist inside the current coalition.
Contacted by IPN, director of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac said that this bill restricts the access to information and the people will know less about the meetings of the Government. “It was normal for the journalists to see how discussions were held as they are contradictory sometimes,” she said, adding that the closed meetings may hide disagreements existing within the government and certain interests.
According to her, the Government should be as open to the people as possible and the press must ensure connection between the executive and the people.
The executive director of the Association of Independent Press Petru Macovei said that by this bill, the components of the government coalition want to avoid discussing the matters publicly as it happened during the rule of the two alliances for European integration. “Now they want to have quietness or at least to keep up appearances, but this does not mean that there will be no contradictions,” he stated.
On the other hand, the ministers will no longer ‘use’ the public to make PR, considers Petru Macovei. “The people will not see so many quarrels on the TV and things will not be as tense. They may be actually tense, but not in appearance,” said the mass media expert.
Petru Macovei also said that as there will be no live broadcast, the ministers will not behave like robots that raise the hand, but will maybe be more active in discussions.
On July 3, the Government adopted a bill by which it suggests holding the meetings behind closed doors. If Parliament adopts it, the press will have access only to the statements made after the executive’s meetings. The bill was put forward by MPs of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party.
