Sorin Rosca Stanaescu is opening debate on the following question: How far does a journalist's freedom to say what he thinks go, no matter the general view of the publication the journalist works for? I asked the ZIUA editorial board to agree to publish the appeal Victor Roncea wrote yesterday, but didn't send it to us. I think this text together with my reply can be the start of an interesting debate. Is a reporter to stay a reporter or has he got the right to become also an initiator of national actions of civic or political nature? If the answer is positive, then what is the line separating the two activities? What happens when a conflict of interests is reached? Who is to surrender first? The activist or the journalist? After all, the debate is also interesting in terms of the relations between a journalist and a publication's editor-in-chief. How far does a journalist's freedom to say what he think go, no matter the general view on the publication the journalist works for? As I am hopeful there will follow useful answers, I am opening this debate. The Internet edition is going to publish them and, if the case, the printed daily will do the same. What if he doesn't resign? (...) Last Friday I told Roncea that it was enough, given his appeal, which I find aberrant, on behalf of the Civic Media Association, "unmasking" all those who think President Basescu was wrong and had to be suspended and also accusing them of being on Macovei's side and having an anti-American conduct. Together with a significant number of the ZIUA journalists, I believe that Basescu made several big mistakes, but I don't feel responsible for some anti-American plot set in Kremlin. I told Roncea that our collaboration should stop, normally. And I asked him to think about whether it was a good idea to dedicate himself to the Civic Media activity for a while or not. He replied that he wouldn't earn enough money. I told him I could help him get employment from a different newspaper, where his ideas would be more compatible to the other journalists'. He decided to think it over until Monday. But then he contacted the ZIUA jurist and the Human Resource Department to ask about what he was to do. Then he attended a radio show, where he claimed that he was losing his job because of having expressed support for Traian Basescu. Yesterday he wrote the appeal you can read in today's newspaper, but he didn't send it to me or to the other ZIUA colleagues. I have failed to reach a decision, in fact. It is because I still feel a friend of Roncea's, just as I feel responsible or his mistakes. If he doesn't want to resign, he can stay. The decision is his. If he wants to be like Basescu, I won't respond like the latter's adversaries. There is no room for political war in the press. But there is room for debate. Sorin Rosca STANESCU ZIUA Editor-in-Chief Roncea: I am not resigning! "It was general director Sorin Rosca Stanescu in person who told me imperatively that I was to leave ZIUA, mentioning the decision was irrevocable. His motivation is explicit and includes fragments from the Appeal to support the President and his principles, elaborated and signed by the Civic Media Association and other organizations active since December 21, 1989 till June 13, 1990. Rosca Stanescu was displeased that the suspension of President Traian Basescu was depicted as a coup d'etat by the oligarchs trying to make Presidency Administration obey Russian interests, at times when the US troops were to get settled in the new US bases in Romania. According to Civic Media analysts, Russia will be the first to make use of such political instability, as the US will have to reconsider the presence of US troops in Romania, given the Administration including members of the Social-Democrat Party (formerly the Front for National Salvation), headed by Ion Iliescu, a politician suspected of being an influence agent of the ex USSR. Strategy to eliminate Basescu's supporters Rosca Stanescu explained he couldn't possibly accept to employ and therefore "to pay" a journalist with such an opinion on the present political crisis. Those who signed the above-mentioned Appeal think it was mostly triggered by the press oligarchies. I was overtly asked to resign last Friday, April 20, so that there would be "no scandal" because of the separation and so that I would be hired by another newspaper part of the SOV Group, where they are staging a play on support for Traian Basescu. Cotidianul is this daily. The idea to isolate journalists opposing the shadow plans of press magnates in 1, at most 2 publications of small importance is actually part of a Strategy to eliminate Traian Basescu's supporters from public life. It was Rosca Stanescu who had previously unveiled it to me. Apart from this plan - now carried out point by point -, I was also informed that, unless I obeyed, I would anyway find it impossible to continue to work as a journalist, because on the media market there was a secret agreement of the press oligarchs' Cartel. As I showed no signs of "understanding", I got to the index: my articles were censored and the ones published would be supervised by Rosca Stanescu himself before being printed. As I did not agree to resign, intermediaries informed me that the newspaper's lawyers would make me leave. The first move to prevent my professional activity was to block my access to the ZIUA server, followed by one executive editor's request that I should hand in my technical devices. (...) I am for the Appeal to Protect the President I am for the Appeal to Protect the President and his principles, just as I am not denying the most insignificant comma in my ZIUA articles. If not even journalists criticize the officials in power these days, why do we still exist, when the latter make mistakes? As for my press colleagues who work honesty and love their job and truth, I am urging them not to let themselves intimidated, not to despair and understand that solidarity can do away with the oligarchy Mafia. The clean voices will succeed. My thanks to those who have expressed solidarity with me: civil society, the Press Associations and FreeEx e-groups in particular. I promise you that I won't hesitate to provide more details soon. Until then, I am taking Basescu's example: I am not resigning.

Victor RONCEA - Independent journalist from ZIUA