Court rules unconstitutional appointments of acting national media heads

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on Thursday agreed to take up of a notification by the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) that Parliament's decisions to appoint interim general directors at the National Television Broadcasting Corporation (SRTV) and National Radio Broadcasting Corporation (SRR) are unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court, as part of its check of Parliament's decisions has unanimously agreed to take up the notification submitted by the parliamentary groups of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and found that Decision 32/2021 of the Romanian Parliament regarding the appointment of the interim general director of the Romanian National Radio Broadcasting Corporation is unconstitutional; unanimously agreed to take up the notification submitted by the parliamentary groups of the Social Democratic Party and found that Decision 31/2021 of the Romanian Parliament regarding the appointment of an interim general director of the Romanian National Television Broadcasting Corporation is unconstitutional. According to a CCR press statement, the court found that the two decisions of Parliament were adopted in violation of the constitutional principle that enshrines the mandatory nature of compliance with the law, provided for by Article 1(5) of the Constitution. "Thus, the provisions of Articles 19 and 20 of Law 41/1994 on the organisation and operation of the Romanian National Television Broadcasting Corporation and the Romanian National Radio Broadcasting Corporation were violated as Parliament argued for the applicability of Article (1) and (3) of the same law, without meeting the condition of the normative hypothesis of this legal text, that is the special situation of the transitional situation between two parliamentary legislatures, in which the appointment of an interim general director of the Romanian National Television Broadcasting Corporation and the Romanian National Radio Broadcasting Corporation is allowed," says CCR. AGERPRES (RO- author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)