Access to Securitate Files: The Trials and Tribulations of a Romanian Law
Access to Securitate Files: The Trials and Tribulations of a Romanian Law
Author(s): Lavinia StanSubject(s): Civil Society, Public Law, Political history, Government/Political systems, Security and defense, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: Securitate files; public access to secret police files; 1990s; Romania; political history;
Summary/Abstract: After years of bitter parliamentary debates, in December 1999 Romanian citizens were finally allowed to access their own secret police files. By that time all other Eastern European countries had passed laws banning former secret police collaborators from holding high state positions under the threat that their past activities would be made public. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and the former East Germany also granted file access. The East German efforts to deal with the painful past of a society divided between informers and their victims are perhaps known best. In the early 1990s it was a regular occurrence for a prominent East German politician, academic, journalist, or priest to disappear from public life after being identified as a Stasi Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter. [...]
Journal: East European Politics and Societies
- Issue Year: 16/2002
- Issue No: 01
- Page Range: 145-181
- Page Count: 37
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF