Romanian NGO asks creatives to get involved in movement against justice laws changes

Romanian NGO Funky Citizens, which develops civic involvement and education projects, has turned to local advertising agencies, asking them to craft messages and campaigns that would raise awareness of what the changes to the justice laws and the criminal code entail. The stated objectives also include pressuring the decision-makers into voting against the justice law changes, urging people to take action, and drawing the attention of international media and European institutions. In what it called “the most important pitch,” the NGO said the “client Romania has an awareness problem, the product is good, but the communication is chaotic. We need a powerful strategic approach, maximum of creativity and strong implementation. The market is big, of minimum 20 million people, without taking into account the international reach.” The NGO said the message that needs to be conveyed is that the current form of the justice laws would impact everyone, break EU regulations, and bring about the risk of sanctions. “Those who lead us make laws dedicated to themselves, in order to control the judiciary,” it said. Funky Citizens also outlined a target audience for the campaigns. This includes the senators and deputies, who need to be convinced to respect the independence of justice and vote against the justice law changes, the average citizen, who needs to be informed of what the changes mean, the media, both local and international, in need of topics, the European institutions, which need to know of the opposition to the justice laws changes, and any niche creatives can think of as important to reach. The call devised by Funky Citizens was published on iqads.ro, a Romanian platform dedicated to the creative industries. Some of the projects Funky Citizens developed include Factual.ro, where the NGO fact-checks statements of politicians and other public personalities and Banipublici.ro, a platform informing the citizens of how public money is spent and offers instruments for getting involved in the budgetary decision-making process. All of their projects are listed here. Justice laws changes: Romania’s civil society appeals to the president, more protests (Photo: Funky Citizens Facebook Page) editor@romania-insider.com