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In addition, PC was notified by TV8 too, which requested PC to set out its views in relation to the way in which the ethical norms were observed in the news report. The third complaint, examined during the same meeting, came from the journalist Lilia Zaharia, who accused Prime TV, Publika TV, Canal 2 channes of quoting her in the news about the same case in a wrong manner and without her consent.
In a post on a social network, the Acting Mayor Silvia Radu accused the TV8 camera crew of questioning her minor daughter during the news report put on TV on 24 January this year. ‘What you have done is completely unacceptable. It’s called harassment. You can’t come to my house and interview my child, being aware of that I wasn’t home. You’ve violated all ethical and common sense rules’, Radu posted on her Facebook page. Against this background, the Acting Mayor Radu asked PC to express its opinion regarding the journalist conduct.
The TV8 News Department Director, Mariana Rata, explained to the PC members that this news report is part of a series of news reports on road cleaning and that the newsroom did not act in bad faith when they shoot the news report near to Silvia Radu’s house. The reporter tried to ring the doorbell of all persons concerned, but did not know that he will discuss with a minor girl in the house of Silvia Radu. As soon as the child appeared, she was asked whether an adult is home to discuss about the icy roads and who cleans the snow. According to Mariana Rata, the question aimed at making it clear the reason of TV8 visit.
The representatives of Silvia Radu were not present at the meeting of Press Council.
Once the complaint and related explanations were examined, the Council members found that the journalists did not act in bad faith in this case and the ethical rules were not violated. However, PC recommended the TV channel and other media to be more cautious when addressing the topics with the involvement of a child, irrespective of child’ status.
During the same meeting, PC also examined the complaint of the journalist Lilia Zaharia. She claimed that she was called by a journalist who introduced herself as working for the Prime channel and asked for a comment on the incident between the Acting Mayor Silvia Radu and TV8 channel. Zaharia added that at first she told the journalist that she didn’t know the topic, but after she was sent a link to the news report and after she watched it, she sent a message on Facebook Messenger the journalist and informed her that she thought the material is correct from the journalistic point of view. In addition, Zaharia asked not to be quoted in the news, since she is not a media expert. Subsequently, according to this complaint, Publika TV and Canal 2 channels informed the audience that she would have refused to comment on the case.
Lilia Zaharia asked the PC members whether the TV channels had the right to mention her name in the news, since she asked them not to quote her, and whether it is correct that the news appeared at several TV channels, although she spoke only with one journalist, who introduced herself as working for the Prime TV channel.
In this case, the Council members found that the above-mentioned newsrooms violated the Journalist Code of Ethics as regards obtaining and treatment of information. PC found that two articles of the Code have been violated: ‘Article 2.1 The journalist shall present the information in an honest and balanced manner and only after having taken steps for verifying it’ and ‘Article 2.3 The journalist shall accurately assign quotations. The quotations shall be precise and in case of partial quotations, the journalist shall be obliged to not distort the message of the person quoted.’
