Radio Free Europe journalists follow Wiesel move and return Romanian honors

Fifteen journalists from Radio Free Europe have said in a letter published on Saturday that they will return Romanian decorations they received in the past because President Ion Iliescu has offered the same medal to the leader of an ultra-nationalist movement, Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The move follows that by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who last week returned a medal he had received from Iliescu, saying he refused to share the same award with Tudor. The journalists said they had received the Star of Romania medals for their work during the country's Communist era. Broadcasting from Germany under communism, Radio Free Europe was the only source of political information for many Romanians. The journalists said they shared Wiesel's motives for returning the medals.