What the newspapers say: February 27, 2009

Most headlines on Friday refer to the recent Human Rights report issued by the US Department of State, which repeats and centralizes several accusations the Romanian media insisted on during the past year. The high-level corruption, the general attitude of the Parliament when it comes to graft accusations against officials and the lack of Justice sentences against those who finally face trial are just a few of the aspects the report mentions.

Evenimentul Zilei describes Romania in 2008 as „Corrupt Ministers, an Accomplice Parliament” and adds that three of the paper’s journalists had to suffer because of their unveilings, a fact mentioned in the US Department of State’s report. The same report makes Gandul note that „The Romanian Government does not apply the law and the Justice does not fight corruption”. Romania Libera notes that some of the conclusions in the report say that „journalists are subject to censorship or harassment, properties retrocession is still delayed, while corrupt politicians never seem to have final verdicts. The uninominal vote doesn’t ensure a democratic representation”.

Meanwhile, the Romanian consumer has begun changing the habits, Evenimentul Zilei reads. While supermarkets and hypermarkets fear sales decrease, the discount stores strengthen their position on the retail market. Romanians already gave up spending on sweets, coffee and soda drinks and even the meat and meat products saw a significant decrease of sales, recent studies indicate.

In regional politics: Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu will meet on Friday his Russian homologue, Sergey Lavrov, to discuss matters regarding the energy, the economic relation between Russia and Romania, as well as security issues, Evenimentul Zilei reads, adding that this may be a first step towards a soon-to-come visit of the Romanian president, Traian Basescu, to Moscow.