Propping up Propaganda 

Propping up Propaganda

Romanian leaders are accusing media organizations of waging a ‘news war’ against the country. However, the authorities seem to have already won control over their own images.

BUCHAREST, Romania - Nostalgic communists in Romania can easily have a glimpse of the old, gloomy days by just grabbing a copy of The Electrician, a PR magazine regularly published by the Romanian state-owned power distributor Electrica. On the cover of its latest issue there is an imposing picture of the current Romanian prime minister, Adrian Nastase. It is strikingly reminiscent of the political advertising during the communist regime when the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu monopolized the entire state-controlled media.

Romanian media are said to be private and independent. Yet with a prime minister striving to disseminate his own image and untiringly bragging about the achievements of his cabinet since the Social Democrat Party (PSD) took the helm in December 2001, a parallel state-controlled media system has arisen.

“PSD learned a lot from the mistakes made by the previous government,” a Romanian journalist who wished to remain anonymous says. “The PSD’s leaders have become incredibly sensitive to their own image. They don’t forgive anything. It is a diabolical media dictatorship achieved by such subtle and clever means that nobody finds out. And if you do, you’re in serious trouble.”

The major television channels in Romania have become part of the power elite’s prodigious propaganda machine. “You could lose your mind watching what is on TV now,” Manuela Preoteasa, a journalist writing economic investigations for the Romanian business weekly Capital, says. "We say here: Do you want objective news? Switch to the Cartoon Network.”

According to a survey carried out in April by the Media Monitoring Agency (MMA), Nastase is the most frequently appearing figure in the news programs broadcast by the four largest channels in the country: the public channel Romania 1, Pro TV, Antena 1 and Prima TV, which together gather 64.8 percent audience share in prime time. The second most broadcast public figure is Nastase’s social democrat peer, Romanian President Ion Iliescu. “The above TV channels flagrantly censor the opposition,” MMA Director Mircea Toma contends.

People are starting to question why the government is so often featured. Government spokespersons argue that it is simply because the prime minister is doing a good job. But the answer is not that simple.

Sweet coverage for debt blindness

Deeply indebted to the state budget, the largest TV channels are dancing to the authorities’ tune. “Politics and media are linked by money, so the economic pressure dictates [the priorities],” Preoteasa says.

Media Pro International, which owns the broadcasting license for the largest private channel in the country, Pro TV, has accumulated debts to the state budget of nearly 1.4 trillion lei [$40 million], sources from the Finance Ministry indicate. In October 2001, Gheorghe Oana, secretary of state in the finance ministry, publicly acknowledged that Pro TV’s owner had debts to the state, but wouldn’t specify how much.

The disclosure prompted the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open an investigation into the debts of Media Pro International, where U.S. billionaire Ronald Lauder’s Central European Media Enterprises (CME) holds a 66 percent stake. A source close to the company’s management says that Media Pro International struck a deal with Nastase’s ruling PSD--an exchange of positive coverage for winking at the channel’s debts.

Partly owned by SBS Broadcasting, TV Prima is in a similar situation. At the beginning of 2000, Amerom SRL, the owner of TV Prima’s broadcasting license, had debts of $29.7 million to the Banking Claims Resolution Agency (AVAB). In the first quarter of that year the station posted revenues of only $704,000, and spent nearly $2 million. SBS recently announced that it would freeze its investments into the station in the next three years. Moreover, the company has sold 53.5 percent of its shares in the station to an undisclosed company owned by TV Prima’s head, Cristian Burci.

Trying to save Burci--widely held to be a political ally of the PSD--the government pumped some $5.9 million from public coffers into the pockets of TV Prima’s boss to keep the station afloat. The shady deal was leaked out in April when the opposition Democratic Party presented documents to the parliament proving that companies owned by the Transportation Ministry transferred cash to Global Media, where Burci holds a majority stake. Reports on the TV Prima saga have progressively disappeared from the press.

The Government's people

The second-largest TV channel, Antena1, has always been known as the megaphone of the former communists, dressed in social democratic garb after the 1989 revolution. “Nastase’s spokesperson calls the news editors and tells them what piece of news about government must be broadcast and when,” a source from Antena1’s editorial team says.

Dan Voiculescu, head of Antena 1’s owner--the Grivco Group--is also president of the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), a member of the ruling coalition.

The Romanian public channel, TVR, which gathers a 13 percent audience on its first channel, Romania1, has always been highly politicized. The parliament appoints its council.

There were initial high hopes for the parliament-controlled National Audiovisual Council, which was tasked with charting freedom of expression. But the council to date has miserably failed in objectively assessing the pressures exerted on TV channels, media observers stress.

Analysts suggest that the current pro-governmental campaign is likely to eventually lessen television news programs’ audience. “The public has already sanctioned the saccharine torpor of the news programs,” Ioana Avadani, director of the Center for Independent Journalism in Bucharest, says.

“Since 1989, television news programs have been the undisputed stars, with record- breaking audiences. But for the first time since the liberalization of the audiovisual market, the entertainment broadcasts outran the audience of news programs last year.” Avadani contends that the change indicates how fed up the audience is with its news providers.

Marius Dragomir is a Senior Knight Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council of the United States, where he is carrying out media research.

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