5.C.1.3  - Targu Jiu

 

Ways of expressing freedom of thought, expression and information  national facts

In Romania the first official regulations on the man’s and citizen’s rights and liberties showed up at the end of the 19^th century, at the same time  with the setting up of the Romanian state. The Constitution in 1866 the fundamental rights and liberties were stipulated and guaranteed in articles 5, 21, 24. The stipulations were taken up in the Constitution in 1923 (articles 5, 22, 25).

Starting with 1938 until 1989 Romania entered a dictatorship era (royal, legionary, military, communist) which seriously damaged the possibility of expressing freedom. Thus, the Constitution in 1938 guaranteed the liberties but the introduction of the censorship, of the state of siege, then of war stopped the manifestations and allowed abuses and atrocities.

The communist dictatorship regime was brought under the regulation by three Constitutions (in 1948, 1952, 1965 ) whose regulations had a tricky democratic character. In the Constitution in 1965 the human rights and liberties shown in the articles 17 … 28 were cancelled by the article 29 which said that these liberties “can’t be used on purposes against the socialist system and against the working class”. They defined the possibility of the abusive interpretation regarding the expressing of the liberties, other documents and later laws underlying this. For example, the law of the press in 1974 established that the mass media’s only purpose was to “militate for applying the Romanian Communist Party’s policy”.

In 1989, due to the people’s free expression, the communist dictatorship was removed, and the Constitution in 1991 stipulated a new democratic regime where the man’s rights and liberties are properly understood (in the articles 21, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, 31).

 

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