ZIUA de Constanţa was banned from the press stands of Conpress Group, which has Radu Mazăre the mayor as shareholder.
On April 6, Radu Mazăre's company decided that nine years for distribution were enough and took out ZIUA de Constanţa from the press stands located on lands leased by Constanţa municipal.
The censuring action (word defined by Media Monitoring Agency in a report on the freedom of the press, as "circulation seizure") was asserted by representatives of our newspaper and denied by Radu Mazăre. And this in spite of the fact that from 6th to 28th of April 2009, the distribution company Tutun şi Ziare Ltd (its major shareholder is Conpress Group, the company having Mazăre as one of the shareholders) kept ordering copies of ZIUA de Constanţa, received those copies, transported them from Bucharest to Constanţa, but never distributed them with Conpress Group stands. And all this, in the opinion of the mayor Mazăre, implies neither censure nor ill will.
More than that, the mayor sent a press release stating that "regarding the buzzer signal (...) on our previous censuring other national newspapers, we should set out that these allegations are entirely false and untrue".
Jurnalul de Constanţa precedent
Nevertheless, if we inquire some of the reports issued along with time by Media Monitoring Agency, we may find out some different stories. In the Report on condition of the freedom of the press in Romania - Cases of harassment of journalists during 2001 - 2002, the agency is presenting the case of Jurnalul de Constanţa newspaper, "harassed because of criticism against the mayor" Radu Mazăre. You may find below excerpts from the report of Media Monitoring Agency for years 2001 - 2002: "On 17th of January, Jurnalul de Constanţa journalists were evacuated from their editorial office by a bodyguard company. At 14.00 hrs, ten p
