The 2003 Report on Human Rights of the US Department of State to warn that the situation in Romania has become worse The 2003 Report of the Department of State on Human Rights in Romania emphasizes again the acute problems of our country, signaled several times over the last 14 years, both by the US authorities and by the EU. The main aspects of concern are related of course, to the generalized corruption, lack of freedom of justice, control of the political factor over the secret services, and interdependence between politics and financial groups of interests. The most serious fact emphasized by the US officials refers to the decaying freedom of speech. The American ambassador in Bucharest, Michael Guest, had emphasized these problems last year, warning the Romanian authorities that the Department of State would signal them. The Government ignored the ambassador's criticism, and some top officials even ridiculed the ambassador's opinions. The current leaders of Romania haven't understood, despite their past, Communist and post �Communist experience, that the ambassador is not an ordinary American visiting Romania, but he represents the greatest Power in the world. Nor Baroness Emma Nicholson is an ordinary English lady looking for votes, but she is the European observer for Romania. From many points of view, the Guest Report is similar to the Nicholson report. (Victor RONCEA) The 2003 Report of the American Department of State on Human Rights in Romania says "there have been 10 major incidents involving a total of 14 journalists who suffered physical attacks in 2003". Even if in Romania, there are possibilities to criticize authorities, they rather responded with "ridiculing the criticism or rejecting the criticism, instead of responding seriously. Moreover, many media organizations � either electronic or written, incurred debts as they couldn't pay their taxes. The fear of fiscal control or punitive fiscal actions diminished the number of negative reports regarding prominent governmental personalities". PSD television Moreover: "The private televisions had the tendency to avoid direct criticism to the government and to the party at power, especially regarding corruption and controversial topics" and "obviously allocated more time for the Government and the party at power than for the Opposition". BBC annihilated Among the means of annihilating the criticism: "the PSD parliamentarians and their political allies acquired many independent media organizations outside Bucharest, including the stations affiliated to British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which, after acquisition, eliminated the news programs of the Romanian Section of the BBC". Political influence in Justice Thus, the main aspect of concern emphasized in the report is the generalized corruption, which remains a problem, despite the fact that first measures to curtail the phenomenon have been taken. On the other hand, the Department of State draws attention on the fact that, even if the Constitution stipulates the freedom of justice, in reality the judicial power is affected by political influence. Secret services used for political purposes Another problem is the fact that, even if the civil society effectively oversights the security and intelligence services, there have been implications regarding their possible serving political purposes. Also, some members of the security forces committed serious abuses related to human rights.

George DAMIAN