Romanian politicians fail in a novel attempt to limit the media's reporting of bad news

We read:

"The Romanian Constitutional Court has just quashed an attempt by the legislature to make the news media broadcast equal measures of good and bad news. Politicians in Romania said that too much bad news is being reported and it is bringing people down. Bemoaning the negative effects of bad news on "the health and life of the people", they successfully put a law through the Romanian senate that required radio and television companies to broadcast one good news story for every bad news story.

The law was sponsored by senators from the National Liberal Party and the far-right Great Romania Party and passed by the Romanian senate. What was needed, the politicians enthusiastically agreed, was less news about depressing things such as incompetent politicians and more news about cheery things. They legislated that the National Audiovisual Council would need to judge what was positive news and what was negative news. The chairman of the council, though, was understandably perplexed. He pointed out that such a half-good and half-bad recipe for all news broadcasts would be impossible. He said: "News is news. It is neither positive nor negative. It simply reflects reality."

The opposition liberal democrats argued that the "good news" law was unacceptable as it restricted freedom of expression. The court agreed, and declared the legislation unconstitutional.

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