CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

Background

Considered one of the greatest 20th century inventions, television was a phenomenon that in a relatively short period of time greatly influenced people. In different parts of the world this new communication tool rapidly became a powerful instrument in the hands of communist propagandists.[1] Along with the Nazis propaganda that in the 1930s started using radio and movies to promote their ideas and beliefs, communist propaganda has been one of the most sustained tactics to control public opinion. The communist system, the party, the state, and the government controlled the process of information especially through their monopoly of the mass media. This was the case in several states from Eastern Europe, with various differences from country to country. This region’s media were dominated by censorship, the party serving as the leader of what was considered to be a “gigantic multi-media” corporation.[2]

In 1945, through what is known as The Yalta Treaty, three significant personalities of the 20th century–Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin--decided the destiny of several nations on a piece of tissue paper. As strange as it may appear, by tracing a simple red line on the European map, delimiting the Western influence from the Soviet one, these three men closed for some and opened for others the access to free communication and information. Romania was one of the most negatively affected countries. By “receiving” 90 % of Soviet influence and only 10 % of Western influence[3], its information system was reduced to being a propaganda tool for communism and its leader Ceausescu. Mass media rapidly became important tools in the hands of communist leaders not only in Romania, but also in the rest of the Eastern European countries under communist regime (Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Albania, U.S.S.R-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Yugoslavia).

The establishment of television in Romania occurred under the communist regime, when all the means of information and communication were centralized under state-party control. Consequently, the communist government used the power of television to disseminate its propagandistic messages in an attempt to create a false perception about dominant ideologies.

The communist era came to an end in December 1989 when the revolution brought freedom and a new period in Romania’s history. Unhappily, although a democratic system came to power, to date Romanian media is not free of influence and control. With the government still controlling national television or with the ownership of major media in the hands of a few people, it often happens that political and business interests are behind the media agenda rather than the viewer’s interests.

[1] Baran Stanley and Davis K. Dennis. Mass Communication Theory (Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006), 234.
[2] Peter Gross, Entangled Evolutions: Media and Democratization in Eastern Europe (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17.
[3] Teodor Georgescu. Romania in Istoria Secolului 20: 1945-1990. (Romania in the 20th century: 1945-1990) (Bucuresti: Hyperion XXI, 1992), 46.


Statement of the Problem

The communist regime brought television to Romania in 1956. The new communication technique was employed by the ruling system in the fight to change old beliefs and to dictate new opinions. Consequently, for more than thirty years, Romanians had television but they failed to enjoy it. All information and communication channels – television, radio, printing and publishing resources – were under the ruling party’s control. Every piece of information was meticulously examined and no broadcast or article could be released without approval.[1]

Television in communist Romania was a reflection of the country’s policy – more permissive in the early 1960s and more restrictive in the late 1970s, after Ceausescu started to counter western influence. Particularly in the last years of communism, national television offered programs that were mostly odes to the country’s communist leader, his wife, and their politics. [2] Children and teenagers exalted their leader during the few hours of available programming. Entertainment virtually disappeared, and broadcasting was reduced to two hours per day in 1985.[3]

The fall of communism in 1989 brought democracy, freedom of speech, and a new era for Romanian television. Privately-held, commercial television emerged and a new industry was born, with both national and international actors looking to fulfill their interests. Nevertheless, despite the independence gained with the revolution, the television industry in Romania does not look promising. Public service broadcasting suffers from a lack of political independence, while the ownership patterns of commercial television stations reveal an excessive concentration of single ownership and insufficient transparency in its operations.[4]

[1] Tiberiu Trancota, Romania Comunista: Propaganda si Cenzura.(Communist Romania: Propaganda and Censorship.) (Bucuresti: Tritonic, 2006), 185.
[2] Gheorghe Epuran and Normand Turgeon, “The Romanian Television Industry”, Journal of Euro-Marketing 11 (2001): 38.
[3]Misha Glenny, The Rebirth of History. Eastern Europe in the Age of Democracy, (London: Penguin Group, 1990), 89.
[4] EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP), Romania – Television across Europe: Regulation, Policy, and Independence – Follow-up Reports 2008, (Budapest, 2008, accessed 10 April 2008);available from http://www.mediapolicy.org/tv-across-europe/tv-across-europe-follow-up-reports-2008-country/Romania-web.pdf/view; Internet.


Purpose and Research Question

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how the objectivity of today’s news programs in Romania is questionable and how censorship is still a problem in Romania in the context of programming.

To determine the validity of this statement the following questions will be explored: “Is the power system in Romania still in the hands of former communists?”; “Is the historical system that the communists established in Romanian television still influencing television news programming today?”; “What are the features of Romanian television news reporting and programming that suggest there is censorship taking place?”.

These questions will be answered by conducting a historical research, based on the analysis and interpretation of comprehensive data and texts, providing the knowledge about how Romanian television has worked in the past and in the present.