A quota for good news

The Romanian parliament in Bucharest has voted in favour of a draft law which requires that news programmes broadcast on television and radio contain positive and negative news in equal amounts. For the newspaper Romania Libera this is bad news: "It is an insult to media consumers that they believe the vigilant arm of the law can protect us against 'bad' news. Bad for whom? For society? For an oligarch? Professionally produced news reflects reality - unadorned. We had news that was only good or very good in communist times. ... To manipulate the media via a law that aims to produce an ideal balance between good and bad would be the worst news for a democratic society."

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