Blitz-CPJ News

Romanian authorities should conduct a swift investigation into the death threats levied against investigative journalist Emilia Șercan and ensure her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Șercan, who reports for independent Romanian news website PressOne, received a text message with death threats from an unknown number on April 15, she told CPJ and also wrote on her Facebook page. The message included explicit death threats and a demand for Șercan to stop her investigative reporting, according to a screenshot of the text reviewed by CPJ and translated by Șercan.

Șercan filed a complaint with the police on April 15, she told CPJ. The minister of interior, Carmen Dan, announced in a Facebook post yesterday that an investigation had been opened into the complaint.

“Romanian authorities should take all necessary measures to ensure investigative reporter Emilia Șercan’s safety,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said. “Law enforcement should act quickly to identify those responsible and hold them to account. Journalists reporting on issues of public interest should be protected and praised, not threatened.”

Șercan has reported on alleged plagiarism by a former education minister and by graduates of the country’s national security and intelligence academies, prompting 10 resignations and at least 16 people being stripped of their degrees, according to a CPJ review of her reporting at PressOne.

CPJ emailed the general directorate of police of Bucharest, the Romanian capital, but did not immediately receive a response.