Corruptie en intimidatie van journalisten vormen obstakels voor toetreding Roemenië tot Europese Unie (en)

The European Commission has questioned press freedom in Romania and highlighted it as one of the most serious failings in this year's progress report on Romanian EU membership.

According to the BBC, the draft report on Romania criticises attempts to curb media freedom, as well as looking at the widespread corruption in the country.

The report emphasises that economic pressure has been put on the press as well as noting cases of physical attacks against journalists.

The attacks have mainly concerned journalists with the local press - and the number of cases has risen recently, something which the report calls an alarming tendency.

The debate over the freedom of the Romanian press has been fuelled by recent alleged attempts to influence the work of journalists in a number of independent Romanian newspapers.

Two big newspapers, Evenimentul Zilei and Romania Libera, protested at alleged undue interference by their Western owners in their editorial content.

Both the Swiss group Ringier and the German owner WAZ, owners of Evenimentul Zilei and Romania Libera, have denied influencing editorial policy.

As far as corruption is concerned, the report notes that anti-corruption measures taken by the government have had a limited impact.

On the other hand, good progress has been made in the field of child protection. That was one of Romania's weakest points in the past and has been mentioned often in previous Commission and European Parliament reports.

Meanwhile, it is not yet clear whether Romania will be declared a functioning market economy.

The report is due to be published Wednesday, 6 October, and will be a key document on Romania's readiness to join the EU.

A report on Bulgaria, also hoping to join the EU in 2007, will be released on the same day.