The investigation journalist Emilia Sercan does and has done her job. She has uncovered heavy names in politics, justice, secret services and police in Romania, along with the doctoral schools of the institutions of power that have anointed as PhDs already famous plagiarists, some of them proven, others unproven by the CNATDCU. The latter could not be proven, either because they lost track of their doctoral thesis, or because a necessary criminal case immediately arose, as in the case of the acting Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă, or because they invented judicial affairs to which the Technical Secretary of the CNATDCU (from the Ministry of Education) did not react.
Of course, Emilia Sercan is not loved by the institutions of power, and not by them alone, for the mirror she holds up to them and, ultimately, to the whole country. Because in the mirror there is a reflection of us, of all of us, of the decadence of schools and universities, of the sordidness and imposture that must be in control, regardless of the political formula that rules the government at one time or another and regardless of who is in the position of Minister of Education.
Emilia Sercan was constantly harassed and threatened. In case of the former heads of the Police Academy, somehow the justice system has moved. Now, according to her own statements, after the latest revelation of plagiarism, the journalist[1], “has been targeted by three separate actions of threat, defamation and intimidation – all related to my work as an investigation journalist. One of the actions of defamation and intimidation was carried out, according to the evidence in my possession, with the complicity of persons in institutions of the State”. As a result, she filed three criminal complaints with the police. The fact that a piece of evidence from a criminal case ended up on various websites is extremely serious. In a democracy, this is something that the public prosecutor who is called upon to supervise the criminal investigation body must deal with immediately. There is no indication at this stage that this has happened.
Equally serious is the blocking of the work of the CNATDCU by seizing the documents held at the National University of Defense following the opening of a criminal file by the General Prosecutor’s Office following the receipt of a complaint about an offence – it is not known which one – concerning the Prime Minister’s doctoral thesis. In fact, there is no legal basis for a criminal complaint (which is not substantiated, at least in the public domain) to stop the jurisdictional activity of the CNATDCU.
In a democracy, the institutions work, they investigate, and the threat and harassment of a journalist do not go uninvestigated. We cannot have expectations and assumptions of the European Union and Russia-specific behavior.
[1] https://pressone.ro/emilia-sercan-autoritatile-statului-au-orchestrat-o-operatiune-de-kompromat-impotriva-mea-acum-incearca-sa-o-musamalizeze
