Romania requests for Sky News journalists' hearing over alleged fake reporting

The Romanian judicial authorities on Friday sent a request to Britain for the hearing of three journalists from the British Sky News channels, in connection with a news story about alleged arms trafficking in Romania.

Prosecutors with Romania's Directorate for Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation (DIICOT) made the move after having started on Wednesday the criminal investigation of the British journalists who took part in the reporting about alleged arms trafficking in Romania, over the offence of communication of false information.

Three Romanian citizens featuring as arms traffickers in the Sky News video footage were soon detained on charges of complicity in communicating and spreading false information that puts national security at risk, after the Sky News aired the news feature. They risk jail sentences of up to five years.

According to local media reports, the so-called gun smugglers are hunters, and the guns, legally-held, were not military weapons but hunting rifles and they stated that they had been given a script by Ramsay and paid 2,000 euros.

Yet, the Sky chief correspondent, who has received widespread criticism from Romanians on social media about the story, wrote on Twitter that "Story is true. Nobody paid. Nobody scripted. Weapons real."

Source : XINHUA