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. | More…

The tabloids war: We’re not Europe’s tuberculars, says Libertatea

Libertatea’s ‘Look who’s talking’ campaign, aiming the negative reports about Romanian migrants in The Sun, continues today with a story called ‘We’re not Europe’s tuberculars [RO]‘. Libertatea promises it will answer all the allegations previously published in The Sun and addresses an piece printed on November 3 by the British tabloid, expressing some concerns that TB could be brought in UK by Romanian immigrants.

After observing that The Sun has blasted a ‘media bomb’ that ‘hurt the pride of every Romanian’, Libertatea says Romania is provided with ‘the most efficient and well functioning TB control system in Europe’. A medical doctor says Romanian TB patients are not likely to leave the care they take in Romania to go to the UK.

Libertatea also reports the intention of the PSD (social democratic party) to sue The Sun for the negative stories published about Romania.

The ‘media bomb’ ‘blasted’ by The Sun might be of less importance than Libertatea says. Searches with ‘Romania’, ‘Romanian’ and ‘tuberculosis’ on the newspaper’s site [EN] only produce a piece titled ‘1,500 migrants a day come in [EN]‘ dated November 3, where the issue of TB coming from Romania is reserved a single sentence, in a sloppy paragraph, towards the end.

• How it started

Exclusive fragments from book of Romanian secret police defector, about the JFK assasination, posted on Romanian blog

Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Romanian Securitate (secret police) general that defected to the Americans in the eighties, is to publish in the US a book on the role of the KGB in JFK’s assassination. A Romanian journalist, Andrei Badin, got the permission to take over several fragments of the book on his blog, Andreibadin.blogspot.com.

• The introduction and the first chapter [RO-EN] (scroll down for Pacepa’s English text)
• Ion Mihai Pacepa’s bio [EN] in Wikipedia.

The tabloids war: Naomi Campbell might pay the ‘dumb Romanian’ 1 million $, claims Libertatea

The Romanian tabloid ‘Libertatea’ published today exclusive extracts [RO] from Naomi Campbell’s housekeeper’s complaint. The ‘dumb Romanian’, a.k.a. Gaby Gibson, stated to the authorities she has been hit, insulted, deprived of freedom and threatened with the Police by the supermodel. According to ‘Libertatea’, while working as a housekeeper for Naomi Campbell for a couple of months, Gibson was insulted in several occasions, in words like: ‘You’re no longer in the third world, you stupid!’, ‘Are all Romanians as stupid as you?’, ‘How long will it take you, the third world, to get in row with the rest?’, or: ‘When are you finally going to learn English?’

On January 17th, 2006, Naomi Campbell assaulted Gibson because she couldn’t find a pair of Stella McCartney jeans, claims ‘Libertatea’.

• ‘Naomi Campbell might pay the Romanian 1,000,000 $ [RO]‘, Libertatea Sunday edition, 19 November 2006 [RO]
• Facsimile of the Libertatea’s 1st page: | More…

Fred Flintstone’s mouse

Computer mouse made from stone, by Russian designer Neko, for traditionalists, ecologysts, fructarians and Fred Flintstone. Does it work?

Source: www.englishrussia.com

The ‘tabloids war’ continues: ‘Libertatea’ takes over Naomi Campbell’s ‘dumb romanian’ housekeeper story

The ‘tabloids war’ between UK’s ‘The Sun’ and Romania’s ‘Libertatea’ continued today with a piece (RO) published in ‘Libertatea’, the most popular Romanian newspaper. On Saturday, ‘Libertatea’ reported the case of Naomi Campbell’s ‘dumb Romanian’ housekeeper, apparently ’stolen from the enemy’, because ‘The Sun’ had published the story one day earlier (Ex-maid brands Naomi a racist, EN). ‘Libertatea’ claims it has got the 40-pages complaint of the housekeeper and promises extensive extracts from it for the Sunday issue. | More…

The editorial director of ‘Adevarul’ resigns

Corina Dragotescu, the editorial director of ‘Adevarul’, announced today the newspaper’s owner she will leave the team. Dragotescu stated for the NewsIn press agency she can’t work ‘with a person that tore an editorial team in two and moved a part somewhere else’. NewsIn assumes the ‘person’ is Razvan Corneteanu, who recently left Ringier Romania for a general manager position in the new press company of the controversial Romanian oil mogul Dinu Patriciu. More than 50 per cent of the ‘Libertatea’ team, a Ringier title and the most succesful Romanian newspaper of the moment, also left several days after to relaunch ‘Averea’, another title owned by Patriciu.

Dragotescu told NewsIn she has some negotiations with two Romanian rolling news TV stations, Antena 3 and Realitatea TV. According to sources consulted by Comanescu.ro, the Realitatea TV deal is more likely. She is one of the politics experts often invited in talk-shows. | More…

The Beatles ‘Love’ preview

Thebeatles.com EMI site offers remixes from the new ‘Love’ album, to be launched on November 20th. You have to register in order to be able to listen to radically different versions of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘Octopus’s Garden’, ‘Lady Madonna’ or ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.

The tracks were reworked by George Martin, the Beatles producer, and his son Giles, from the original tracks (Strawberry Fields includes samples from ‘Penny Lane’, ‘Piggies’ and Martin’s own piano solo on ‘In My Life’, for example).

The idea of doing a Las Vegas show with Beatles remixes sounds funny, as does Martin’s son participation in the project. The result is however surprising and at the same time true to the Beatles spirit.

Ziua newspaper relaunch (update)

The ‘Ziua’ newspaper has been relaunched today, with a new graphic design. According to informations on the market, the editorial team put a special emphasis on the investigation and politics sections of the newspaper, while diminishing the importance of the sports pages. ‘Ziua’ is one of the successful Romanian newspapers in the nineties, but has entered a twilight zone (22,000 copies sold in average according to BRAT, the Romanian ABC) during the Summer of 2005, maybe because of the accusations president Traian Basescu had launched on Sorin Rosca Stanescu, the director of the newspaper. Basescu claimed that Rosca Stanescu had threatened him with negative stories in the publications the latter was controlling through the press management ‘Fulcrum’ company.

The ‘Ziua’ site also went through a face lift. | More…

Romanian TV & print group expansion on the Internet

The number of sites launched or relaunced by Media Pro has raised to at least five. Authorised sources from Media Pro confirmed that Infosport.ro, a new site belonging to the CME-Adrian Sîrbu so-called media empire, will soon be up, after the launch of Dariaiubireamea.ro and Iubirecainfilme.ro and the relaunch of Acasatv.ro and Protv.ro. Media Pro has started an expansion on the Internet with the founding of Media Pro Interactiv, the new media division of a press holding owning the most successful commercial TV station in Romania, Pro TV, some other televisions and radios and an important print division. The general director of Media Pro Interactiv (MPI) is Orlando Nicoara (blog, RO), a well-known manager which has left Boom/Netbridge earlier this year with a dozen of key people to start the MPI.

Two spokespersons of Media Pro confirmed for the NewsIn press agency the launching of Infosport.ro, without disclosing any date or content directions. The domain belongs to Pro TV SA, a part of the Media Pro structure. According to the rumors on the market, another on-going project of MPI is Loredana.ro, a site belonging to a famous Romanian singer, Loredana Groza, also a Media Pro top manager’s wife. Loredana.ro is owned by the record company in the Media Pro holding.