RomânăOn May 13, the Ilfov Electoral Bureau decided to remove from the internet an editorial published in Aktual24, and the decision was upheld on May 14 by the Central Electoral Bureau. The editorial criticized the aggressive language used by one of the presidential candidates and urged citizens to vote. The decision of the electoral bureau orders the removal of the material published by Aktual24 and addresses a request to this effect to both the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) and ICI – the .ro domain registry. A similar decision, made public today, May 15, 2025, also targets an Instagram post by the civic initiative Politică la Minut.
The reason given by the electoral bureaus in their decision regarding Aktual24 is that the opinions expressed exceed “the limits of freedom of expression in an objective and balanced journalistic initiative” and therefore considers that the article constitutes political advertising material, thus falling within the scope of electoral regulations (Law 370/2004, OUG1/2025). Furthermore, the decision erroneously designates the ICI—which has a purely technical role as a registry—as the authority that should enforce this decision. This problem is identical in the case of dexonline.ro.
We consider some of the decisions taken by the electoral bureaus during this election campaign to be abusive, excessive, and dangerous, as they classified the opinions of politically unaligned citizens or journalists as political advertising material, unjustifiably restricting the right to freedom of expression. In general, there are serious questions about how some people were or were not considered political actors and how criteria were added in practice, on top of an already unclear legal framework.
We recall that, according to the regulations in force, “Communications that fall within the scope of journalistic activity aimed at informing the public, as well as public opinions expressed in a personal capacity by persons other than political actors, do not constitute political advertising material” (Article 1(2) of the AEP Decision supplementing OUG 1/2025), provisions which are also found in EU Regulation 2024/900 on political advertising. However, as we warned, along with other organizations, at the beginning of this election campaign, neither GEO 1/2025 nor the aforementioned AEP Decision contain criteria that allow for the clear identification of political advertising materials and political actors, and, due to their ambiguity, these regulations make ordinary citizens and journalists vulnerable to censorship. And the practice of electoral bureaus has been to censor political opinions, probably under pressure from representatives of political competitors in these forums.
According to Article 30 of the Romanian Constitution – “Freedom of expression”: “Censorship of any kind is prohibited” and “No publication may be suppressed.” The deletion of a journalistic article from the online space is a serious act of censorship, which should only be decided by an independent court—the court of law—following a trial that allows for the presentation of defenses and evidence and for which there are higher courts of appeal. In the case of the Instagram publication “Politică la Minut,” there was not even the slightest information about the decision taken by the Central Electoral Bureau.
While the electoral bureaus and the National Audiovisual Council are investing considerable resources to remove isolated posts from the internet, the real issues affecting the fairness of the election campaign are slipping under the radar of these authorities. We are referring to coordinated inauthentic content, fake accounts, bots, coordinated campaigns to influence elections or promote political actors, etc., i.e., exactly the problems that led to the cancellation of the first round of last year’s presidential elections (see, for example, the Expert Forum report – Commercial tabloidization or political campaign? published yesterday, May 14).
ActiveWatch – link
ApTI – Association for Technology and the Internet – link
Center for Independent Journalism
Expert Forum Association
Átlátszó Erdély/Transylvania Transparent
Spiritual Militia