April 25 (SeeNews) - Romania climbed two places to the 44th position in the latest freedom of press ranking of Reporters Without Borders, RSF, but continues to struggle with excessive politicisation of the media, corrupt financing mechanisms and editorial policies subordinated to owner interests and intelligence agency infiltration of staff, the non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday.
"The media environment has also been affected by the activities of far-right groups linked to the Orthodox Church—itself partly state-funded—that are openly opposed to press freedom," RSF said in its latest World Press Freedom Index report.
RSF mentions a bill proposed by Liviu Dragnea, president of the chamber of deputies and leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party, which would penalize denigration of Romania abroad and reintroduce defamation into the criminal code. This is fuelling concern about political censorship of the media, RSF warned.
Slovenia remained the best ranked country in Southeast Europe (SEE), at the 32nd spot, followed by Romania, Bosnia (62th), Croatia (69th), Serbia (76th), Albania (75th), Kosovo (78th), Moldova (81st), Montenegro (103rd), Macedonia (109th) and Bulgaria (111th), the World Press Freedom Index 2018 showed.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.