To the Editor: Accusations against Romania’s Ponta are unsubstantiated
Dear Mr Chief Editor,
As you are well aware, on the 18th of June, Mr. Victor Ponta, the Prime Minister of Romania was accused that an important part of hid PhD thesis was plagiarized, and the publication you are leading has taken up this charge.
We would like to make it very clear that these accusations are unsubstantiated and have a very transparent political tinge, regrettably drawing your publication into a conflict.
At the same time, we believe that in order to be take into account, a plagiarism charge must come from a credible source, transparently presented, whereas the article published by your publication does not mention such a source, but quotes anonymous and undisclosed sources, as well as specialists from different fields of science than the one in question.
We consider it our duty to let inform you, by means of this letter, as to the elements that debunk the charges leveled at the Prime Minister. Hence:
Victor Ponta was accused of plagiarizing in his PhD thesis a paper authored by the reputed Romanian specials Ion Diaconu. We would like to mention that the preface to the published version of the thesis is written by no other than Mr. Ion Diaconu, whose work Mr. Ponta is accused of plagiarizing.
At the same time, Victor Ponta is accused of inserting, without properly mentioning the sources, extended passages from works signed by professors Dumitru Diaconu, Ion Diaconu and Vasile Cretu. We would like to mention that the bibliography and the reference list of the thesis comprehensively list all the papers Victor Ponta is accused of having plagiarized.
The PhD thesis of the Prime Minister is about the International Criminal Court and was written shortly after this institution was set-up. The purpose of the paper was to explain to the Romanian law community the main elements pertaining to the functioning of the International Criminal Court. We would like to make it known that in 1999 Victor Ponta was a member of the Committee charged with drafting the rules of procedure and evidence, being delegated for this purpose by the Romanian Public Ministry.
Unfortunately, a lack of information on the domestic political dynamics of Romania has led to your publication’s unfortunate involvement in a political action.
These unsubstantiated accusations appear in a particularly hectic moment and their objective is none other than putting pressure on the domestic political debate of Romania. We would like inform you that at the moment, there is a legal dispute between the Government of Romania and the President of Romania as to who is legally responsible of representing the position of our country within the European Council which will be held at the end of July.
The intention of the authors of this attack, who will not take public responsibility for their action, is mainly to alter the character of the domestic debate on Romania’s representation at the European Council in a manned favorable to the incumbent president, Traian Basescu.
We considered it an obligation to make all these elements known to you, being perfectly aware of the importance of these trumped up charges. We ask you to take them all these contextual informations into consideration when you decide on your publication’s involvement in this matter.
Respectfully,
The Press Office of the Government of Romania
(Photo: axente ovidiu/sxc.hu)
