Tracking down doctoral students plundering other work has “become her mission” since 2015 in the face of the scale of the scourge in this country of the former communist bloc undermined by corruption, says this 46-year-old journalist, short square blonde and bright eyes, in an interview with AFP.
Academic fraud has become a tempting shortcut to access the upper echelons, explains the one who has flushed out around fifty cases of ministers, prosecutors or judges who have published books, scientific articles and theses of dubious authenticity.
His latest victim: Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, 55 and an influential retired general who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Leader of the Liberals, he came to power in November 2021 with the support of President Klaus Iohannis.
In an investigation published in mid-January on the independent site PressOne, Emilia Sercan accused him of having plagiarized a third of his thesis, which he defended himself, saying that he had respected the rules in force in 2003.
Since then, the rain of criticism has not stopped: “Never before have I felt targeted in such a way”, she confides.
In 2019, she had already received death threats after the revelation of cases of plagiarism in doctoral theses within the Police Academy.
The former rector and his deputy, suspected of having asked a subordinate to send the messages, had been forced to resign and were given a three-year suspended prison sentence in July.
This time, the flood of insults does not stop: Emilia Sercan says she was overwhelmed by “hate speech” on social networks. To the point of “feeling in danger”.
She filed several complaints, including after receiving a message containing stolen intimate photos, taken by her fiancé 20 years ago.
“Forty minutes after leaving the police station” to report this incident, the photos were published by a Moldovan site, then taken up by “a total of 74 sites”, details the forties, accusing the Romanian authorities of having “orchestrated a kompromat operation”.
Several months later, the case has still not progressed, she laments.
Contacted by AFP, the prosecution indicated that an investigation was underway, without giving further details.
“For me, it’s very clear: at the highest level of the state, people are blocking the process and want to bury the file. They are using their power to cover their tracks and push me into silence”, asserts the journalist from investigation.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other organizations have expressed “deep concern about the harassment” of Emilia Sercan, who is highly respected in the profession.
– “Plagiarism networks” –
In the political class, “members of the liberal party”, from which the Prime Minister comes, “reproached me for having chosen the wrong moment”, when war was about to break out in neighboring Ukraine , she continues.
At the same time, Mr. Ciuca obtained the annulment of three legal proceedings for plagiarism initiated by citizens.
And the government has launched a counter-offensive: a bill provides for the abolition of the independent body responsible for examining allegations of plagiarism as well as a prescription for academic misconduct after three years.
For Ciprian Mihali, professor at the University of Cluj (north-west) and specialist in the subject, the problem has its roots in “the proliferation of universities in the years 1990-2000 after the fall of the communist regime”.
“We had to deal with the development of a real plagiarism industry,” he underlines. “It’s a whole production line” allowing “incompetent people to rise to vital positions”.
Before Mr. Ciuca, another Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, was accused in 2012 of plagiarism by the British scientific journal Nature, but he refused to leave.
It was not until 2015 that he was forced to resign after massive protests against corruption. A few months later, he was deprived of his title of doctor of law.
