National Press Review, 17 March

The situation in Japan concerns the entire planet. Newspapers in Bucharest develop the same topic. ‘After disaster, exodus of Japan begins’, the Jurnalul Național reads. Japanese and foreigners flock to leave Tokyo, due to earthquakes and nuclear disaster, while fewer airlines resume a normal schedule.

The România Liberă: ‘50 nuclear technicians risk lives trying to avert disaster in Japan’. It talks about the technicians who remained at their posts in the inferno in Fukushima, where they risk their lives trying to prevent nuclear disaster.

The Evenimentul Zilei opens today’s edition with ‘weaknesses of a large nuclear power’. Some of Japan’s nuclear plants were built to withstand an earthquake less severe than the one on Friday. Apparently, mistakes have been made when building the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

The two special reporters of the daily Adevărul talked to the elderly who survived the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They don’t understand why Tokyo residents emptied store shelves for food. ‘Food supply should be redirected to disaster struck areas, where they are highly needed and not stored in Tokyo’, one of the elders believes.

We conclude this topic with the newspaper Gândul, who informs that Romania could be required to check Cernavodă nuclear plant safety. The concerned authorities in Brussels have decided Tuesday to conduct tests to check the nuclear facilities’ resistance to earthquakes, seismic waves and terrorist attacks in all EU countries.

Daily newspapers issued this morning did not get the results of the last night’s vote on the motion censure, but they write about the first part of the debate on the motion and they also handle the topic of the protest meeting in the capital’s Constitution Square – brief review of newspaper headlines.

The Adevărul: ‘Censure motion blocked by Viktor Orban’, while the protest meeting only managed to gather 5,000 people during its peak time, the newspaper reads.

The Jurnalul Național doubles the number of protesters and writes about the ‘almost widespread apathy’ when referring to the debate on the censure motion.

The Gândul also observes that parliament’s yesterday activity had a slow start but it managed to increase the state of nervosity by the end. The Gândul also says that during the motion Prime Minister Emil Boc managed to resuscitate the… violet flame, as he was wearing a purple necktie.

Translated by: Mihaela Grigoraş
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University