The lie that Realitatea TV has been airing for the last two days, that prime minister Emil Boc had snatched the microphone from the female reporter the station had sent over to the senate, was yesterday revised to include other versions ("Boc confiscated the microphone" or "Boc holds the microphone hostage"), but the headline that takes the crown home is the one in Jurnalul Naţional : "Boc swipes the microphones of journalists".

It"s not just one microphone/one journalist, we"ve gone over to the second stage: we are now talking about journalists in the Senate, whose microphones were swiped.

Two journalist bodies - The ROMEDIA Professional Association of the Romanian Press and the Convention of the Media Organizations - have issued press releases protesting the abusive actions of the Prime Minister.

"The ROMEDIA Professional Association of the Romanian Press protests against the physical and verbal violence of PM Boc perpetrated against the journalists of Antena 3 and Realitatea TV".

Most likely, in the third stage, they will claim the journalists were beaten, and in the fourth stage, they will have been kidnapped and taken away to Iraq.

Next week, the headlines will probably say "Boc is the brother of Bin Laden".

Bin Laden must have about 50 brothers already, give or take, it wouldn"t make much of a difference if somebody added Emil Boc to the list.

"The prime-minister was unhappy that TV stations insist on focusing on the information about the large number of state secretaries in the various ministries, which according to official statements should have been cut since October", the press release of the Convention of Media Organizations claims.

Another lie.

That"s not what the prime minister was unhappy with.

He was unhappy with the fact that Realitatea TV was spreading misinformation about an increase in t