The president of the Romanian Press Club resigns

The president of the most important Romanian journalists’ and editors’ association resigned on Monday, November 20. Cristian Tudor Popescu, a public figure and also the director of the Gandul newspaper, invoked as a reason for his resignation from the chair of the Romanian Press Club the loss of prestige of the journalist job in Romania, as a result of the massive human resources moves on the market, fuelled by the money of several controversial Romanian billionaires.

The moves are determined by the big investments Romanian businessmen such as Sorin Ovidiu Vintu, Dinu Patriciu and Dan Voiculescu recently made in media. More than half of the team of Ringier Romania’s Libertatea, the most successful newspaper in Romania, left to join Averea, a title taken over by oil mogul Dinu Patriciu, several weeks ago. Managers from Publimedia and Ringier left for Sorin Ovidiu Vintu and Patriciu’s media ventures, while several known journalists in their late thirties or early forties have also made various moves on the market.

The whole landscape looks as if the journalists’ consciences can easily be bought with money by some often criticized Romanian top 10 billionaires, which also are the target of the anti-corruption campaign of the reformist governing alliance ‘DA’, suggested Popescu.

Cristian Tudor Popescu is also a controversial figure. After some activity as a SF writer, he started his career as a journalist after the communism fall, and since 1996 his popularity has increased due to the unnumberable TV shows he has taken part in, mainly political talk shows but also appearances as a tennis commenter or movie critic. As a president of the Romanian Press Club and a number one at Adevarul and Gandul newspapers, he is considered by critical voices an exponent of the idea that journalism and business management can be the attributions of the same person. He is blamed, among others, for encouraging or at least approving the publication of advertorials very similar to the editorial content, the so-called ‘advertising without an a sign’ practise in the Romanian press. Journalists under his editorial guidance also were allowed to negociate advertising deals with the very persons they approached for various economy topics or investigations, which raised suspicions of biased reporting or even blackmail.

The Romanian Press Club itself has also been criticized for an attempt to group both journalists and representatives of Romanian media owners in the same structure. Ironically, in his resignation letter Cristian Tudor Popescu himself invoked the overwhelming importance the owners/editors started to get in the Club.

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