Romanian Journalists Under Pressure to Disclose Sources

The Romanian investigative publication Rise Project says the ruling Social Democratic Party is trying to pressure it to disclose the source of a recently leaked document that includes financial as well as personal information about party leader Liviu Dragnea.

The country's agency for personal date protection sent a notification on Thursday threatening Rise Project with a fine of 20 million euros.

Rise Project said last Saturday that it had obtained a suitcase containing thousands of documents from the Tel Drum road infrastructure company in Teleorman County, in southern Romania, whose council Dragnea used to lead.

The company has been at the heart of one a major graft case involving Dragnea.

The journalists last week launched a series of investigations labeled #TeleormanLeaks, based on the documents they say they found in the suitcase, which a local farmer - who found it abandoned on his property - had handed to them.

The Agency for Personal Data Protection on Thursday sent a notification to Rise Project's newsroom in Bucharest, demanding that the journalists disclose the source of the information or risk a 20-million-euros fine.

The journalists, who have published the document on social media, said Dragnea and his allies were trying to intimidate them in order to get access to the media organization's computer network.

"Rise in an independent centre for journalistic investigations affiliated to international organizations in the field, and we act exclusively in the public's interest," a statement from the publication on Thursday night read. "We will continue," it added.

Dragnea on Thursday denied any connection to the data protection agency's initiative and declined to comment further.

On Monday, he...