Romanian Journalists Strike Over Unpaid Salaries

After management "failed to comply with its monthly financial obligations", the online and print departments of the daily Romania Libera staged a brief strike on February 28.

Over 50 journalists from the leading broadsheet joined the protest against long-delayed payments of wages. The strike ended that same day after journalists were promised part of their salaries by the end of next week.

This was second such protest at "Romania Libera" in recent months. The daily is owned by a businessman, Dan Adamescu, and is is among the few newspapers in Romania with a critical attitude towards the government.

The print media in Romania faces many difficulties. Circulations have fallen dramatically in recent years, partly because of the economic downturn.

Advertising has also fallen for the dailies, whose average circulation is now just 20,000 copies a day among a population of around 19.5 million people. As a result, delays in paying monthly salaries for journalist are common.

The effect of the crisis on Romania's newspapers has been seen in sweeping reductions in staffing. More than 6,000 journalists have lost their jobs over the past few years after hundreds of small publications closed.

Analysts say the decrease in newspaper circulation is also due to the fact that more people now turn to the internet and mobile phones for news.