Public television and the democratization of Romanian society

Brief History

Evolution of transition in former communist countries, from South-Eastern Europe,

after December 1989, was determined by the dependence of those countries to the former
Soviet Union in the 50 years of Communist experiment. In turn, this dependence was
basically influenced by the major settlement discussions of the three "big” Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin at the historic meeting in Tehran in 1943, Moscow, 1944 and Yalta in
1945.

Why should we appeal to some historical events that took place more than fifty years
ago, in a story on public television in Romania in 2010, which appears in a volume dedicated
to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright program in Romania? Because those
events have fundamentally influenced the evolution of Romanian society during the
communism and after 1989. We cannot understand the evolution of the last 20 years in
Romania without knowing where we started. If the agreements in Tehran, Moscow and Yalta
had a tragic impact on Romanian history, Fulbright program, begun in 1960, had a positive
influence on academic development in Romania, by the Romanian Fulbright scholars who had
notable academic careers and have educated generations of students, giving them a “window”
to free knowledge. Not incidentally, former Fulbright scholars are among the most respected
figures of the Romanian academic environment.

The key to understanding the situation of Romania in December 1989 is in the

documents filed by Lord Ismay, Chief of Staff's Winston Churchill, to Lidell Hart library at
King's College London. Lord Ismay accompanied W. Churchill to Moscow in 1944 when
they made final geopolitical arrangements for end the war. These arrangements have been
valid 50 years.1

In the afternoon of 9 octombrie1944, in a brief discussion, Churchill proposed Stalin

the division of spheres of influence as follows2:

- Romania: 90% of Soviet influence, 10% of Western influence

1
The document title is "Anglo-Soviet Political Conversation in Moscow 9-17 October 1944", project code name
'Project Tolstoy. " Data on these documents were obtained from volume Nicolae Baciu, Sell-out to Stalin - The
Tragic Errors of Churchill and Roosevelt, Ed Vantage Press, New York, 1984 (the volume has been translated
into Romanian at Dacia Publishing House, Cluj Napoca , 1990).
2
Nicolae Baciu, Agonia României 1944-1948, Dacia Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 1990, p. 121
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 - Greece: Western influence 90%, 10% of Soviet influence

- Yugoslavia: 50% of Soviet influence, 50% of Western influence;

- Hungary: 50% of Soviet influence, 50% of Western influence

- Bulgaria: 75% of Soviet influence, 25% of Western influence

Poland was also ceded to the Soviets because it was promised to the Russian at a meeting
in Tehran in 1943, when Roosevelt lived at the Russian embassy and not to the American
Embassy.

The 90% percent of Soviet influence over Romanian society had a fundamental influence
on the economy and social life. Thus, the communist regime in Romania was one of the
toughest: in Romania was possible the Pitesti3 experiment, in Romania have been physically
cleared the elites to make room for the new pro-Soviet establishment, in Romania have been
banned any market economy elements, however, allowed in other communist countries as
Poland, where there was a party with the communist without immediate social influence.
Even if the communist leadership has succeeded to persuade the Soviets to withdraw troops
from Romania, the hardness of the scheme was comparable to that of the former USSR.

After 1989, Romania has awakened from the revolutionary euphoria of change, in a
critical condition. The Reconstruction of society must reach the entire range of power:
political power, economic power, military power and symbolic power4. Political power was
held by one party state, which might be confused with the state apparatus. From single party
began the transition to a democratic society, with more parties. Economic power (industry,
agriculture and services) has begun the transition from a centralized organization to an open
market. For these two powers, political power and economic power, there were some parts
that allowed, at least in projection, a horizon of hope for a decent transition, if not easy. The
elite of the Romanian society, decimated by the Soviet occupation after the Second World
War, there were survivors who could become centers of crystallization for new policy
directions. Later, in dealing with the reality has proven that "decent transition" was too much
hope. Economic power also benefit from the existence of people who worked at the interface
with the market economy and seemed to have the necessary experience to build the new
economy( in time, an illusion was proved: these people, who belonged to the party apparatus,
3
Virgil Ierunca, Fenomenul Piteşti,Humanitas Publishing, Bucureşti, 1990
4
John. B. Thomson, Media şi modernitatea, o teorie socială a mass-media,Antet
Publishing, Bucureşti, 1994, p. 18
2
security and to some extent, to the army, seemed relevant as long as they were protected by
the scheme which they belonged, which covered their mistakes, incompetence, and which
avoided from the penalties that ordinary people which not belonging to the former power
systems, were not shunned. “Competence versus membership can be considered one of the
fundamental structural characteristics of organizations that have differentiated from the
former communist countries to the western countries, about they spoke very little.”5 Perhaps
because of shyness, perhaps because of ignorance of this phenomenon, it was difficult to
identify those who belonged to the structures of power, because of the impossibility of
posting or a view from outside. We refer here to the organization in the most general possible,
the military organizations to the political and economic. In the communist East, it is believed
that the organization is shifting the responsibility of its members, which are becoming more
proficient with the advancement in the organization hierarchy. Their only obligation was
unconditional loyalty, up to an unlimited obedience. Twenty years after the downturn of 1989,
what matters is the ownership and unconditional loyalty, while competence creates suspicion
and in some cases, tends to become a felony, misdemeanor jurisdiction. Obsessive
preoccupation in the twenty years of the transition is the complete control over the company,
which is, in our opinion, impossible. However, the consequences of this concern are dramatic
for the Romanian society: the incompetence has become a factor of risk to national security.

The 90% of Soviet influence in Romania, exercisable for 50 years, have had dramatic
consequences on Romanian society from another perspective. The leadership has been
systematically eliminated and a new set of values has been promoted in the society, which has
as ultimate aim the total control of Soviet society, even in the absence of occupation troops.
We talk about the NKVD directives for Central and Eastern Europe. To understand better the
essence of these directives and their influence on Romanian society, we present some of these
recommendations:

“8. It will pay attention to people with organizational skills and real chances of
popularity. These people should be involved, and if opposed, it will block their access to
higher-level positions.”

“9. It is intended that the civil servants (excluding bodies Mine Safety and industry)
have low salaries. This includes in particular the sphere of health, justice, culture, namely

5
Ion Stavre, Reconstrucţia societăţii româneşti cu ajutorul audiovizualului, Nemira
Publishing, Bucureşti, 2004, p. 7

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those who hold leadership positions (document found in Czechoslovakia adds less managers
chosen based on loyalty to the socialist regime)”

“18. It has to be organized, so, only the leaders who execute flawlessly the problems
were appointed without analyze them beyond the scope of their activities can be promoted.”

“45. The persons with high priority, in going to faculty, must be only the persons from
the lowest social classes, those who are not interested to improve high-level, but only to
obtain a diploma.”

Applied to the whole Romanian society, after 45 years, these rules have been treated in
mental and social institutions and they are reproduced by the organizations and institutions
without the existence of the originally factor intended. It's simply a matter of social mentality
which results in a serious shortage of power across society. The 90% percent of Soviet
influence set in Tehran, Moscow and Yalta in 1945 have made these directives to be applied
with maximum effect, much higher than in the former communist countries. Inevitably, the
Romanian establishment, after the 1989, might be the result of this selection, applied
rigorously for 50 years.

For the symbolic power of television to which it belongs and was much more difficult
to regenerate in the new field of democracy, after 1989, not exists in the past some compelling
values in this field. Former journalists inevitably instruments of ideology, party activists had
been assimilated and security and this legitimacy could not work under new conditions, even
if some of them attempted to define, more or less discreetly, totalitarian ideology, merely the
professional field. History is sometimes unfair because nobody had time, interest or
availability of individual approaches. Confusion has been useful to those who truly had
something to hide or that were "in the project", by being a part of the core ready to assume
power after 1989.

The Symbolic power, in this paper, is define by Thomson in 1994 after it follows: "the
ability to use symbolic forms (...) to intervene and to influence the action or events 6."
According to Thomson, symbolic power has a corollary, cultural power which stemmed from
the actions of social actors. According to the same author, cultural powers interact with the
symbolic power and assimilated it. Ultimately, cultural power reflects how people in everyday
life, and states are building their identities and cultural activities and how these affect their

6
John. B. Thomson, op. cit., p. 19
4
behavior on others. "Symbolic and cultural power are used by other powers (economic,
political and military) to determine the individual to accept, adapt and transform the
environments structured by those powers"7

In addition to this handicap of symbolic power, lack of competence and legitimacy,

the Romanian society, effectively isolated for fifty years, didn’t have experts to show the
fundamental changes from the information industry in the Western world. The three
traditional areas of media: information field of journalism, communication (advertising,
public relations and propaganda) and entertainment tend to merge into one in which
advertising is the dominant language, even if not always the most important.

This was, in short, the situation in December 1989. Public television had at the end of
the communist regime only 2 hours of broadcasting. One hour of broadcasting was dedicated
to the news shows which presents information about the Communist Party leader.
Development of public television after 1989 should thus follow two basic directions:

- Editorial development, which includes news, social, political, economic, journalistic

investigations, entertainment qualitatively different from that offered by commercial
television, documentaries, soap operas;

- Technological development, which meant an immediate jump in 16 mm film cameras

for news on beta and then to digital technology.

Development of public television since 1989 has a dark side, less known. Although it
could contribute more to the reconstruction of Romanian society, it could accelerate the
transformation of Romania's democratic the development of public television has been
delayed deliberately by political decisions at the highest level, decisions that have been
observed regardless of regime change.8 The reason for this limitation in the development of
public television was aimed to allow the accelerated development of a private broadcasting
which would be a huge factor of influence in society. Meanwhile, public television's financial
resources have been targeted by various methods being, used by some private trusts in
dubious association with public television. Public television is controlled by private trusts by
naming people in key positions who worked in the trusts, which may control the editorial and
acquisitions of public television equipment. Public television is the only television in

7
Ibidem., p.20
8
Note. The statement is the result of the author and professional discussions over time
with several directors of public television and various lawmakers, from October 1991.
5
Romania after 1989 which did not produce serials, soap operas or notable documentary films.
Basically, today by the editorial policy of the last 20 years, public television cannot offer for
sale any domestic or foreign market quality editorial product because the staff with potential
for originality was systematically rejected or in the best situation has been directed to private
television.

Why do we need a public television

This paper aims to demonstrate that the situation of Romania in December 1989
requires a strong public television, which is also a standard of quality audiovisual productions
and television school for those working in this field. We need a television to help speed up the
reconstruction of Romanian society, as well as the deconstruction of the effects of accelerated
NKVD directives for Central and Eastern Europe.

European Union policy aimed and still aims to encourage audiovisual productions
representing the national identity, common heritage of Europe and European values of the
market economy. Public Broadcasting in the European countries should serve social purposes,
cultural and political, not forgetting the economic objectives. In European countries, public
broadcasting coexists with the private system which doesn’t have as the first objective, the
public good, but the profit.

The difference is between public and private broadcasting in the European Union is
based on the distinction between the concepts of consumer and citizen. 9 If we consider
broadcasting from a consumer perspective, viewers are seen as individual consumers which
observe the audiovisual product as private broadcasters, a commodity that is produced to be
sold. For private broadcasters, the information is not necessarily a public resource to be
distributed on behalf of the public good, it is a private property to be exploited for profit.
Citizens report the content of audiovisual productions in terms of social and civic values they
promote. Hence the substantial difference between the content of television programs
broadcast by public and private broadcasters. This difference in approach angles allows
different treatment of the news produced by the two television categories. We give an
example of different treatment of a news broadcast in Romania from December 2009. When
decorating the Cotroceni Palace (headquarters of the Presidency) to a former political
prisoner, Vasile Paraschiv, he refused decorations and had a replica exchange with the
Romanian President. Vasile Paraschiv refused the decoration motivating that he didn’t accept
9

6
a a decoration from a former communist president. ProTV channel broadcast in the news
programme just this reply. The President replied that it is a late repair of the Romanian state
and the person who handed it doesn’t matter. Reality TV news channel aired only replica of
the President. Only the public television broadcasted the entire dialogue, which was a correct
ethical approach to this event. Editorial policy oscillates between television service in the
public interest and economic interests, profit, according to television, public or private.

Political and economic polarization on the private broadcasting is visible in Romania

too and we can consider this a natural consequence of market economy, the effect of
globalization Broadcasting. This polarization and almost exclusive focus on profits is making
the private media to not always become an ideal and unconditional stage for public debate. In
my view, broadcasting from Romania browse from 1989 to 2010 the following phases:
childhood, until 2000, the development an identity stage by 2007 and political and economic
polarization stage, after 2007.

Unconditional freedom has negative aspects, by the fact that at some point, a group
can control the society without limits. Public television is the place where the 5 journalistic
performance evaluation standards set by the American journalistic freedom of the press, can
be respected10:

- True story of the coherent and comprehensible current events, story with a meaning;

- Forum for comments and critical discussions;

- Reflecting the proportion of the various groups that constitute society;

- Presenting and explaining the society objectives and values;

- Full access to current information.

Within the European Union a constant concern was to define public television, which
means public service broadcasters (the acronym in English is PSB - Public Service
Broadcasting)11.

10
van Cuilenburg J. J., Scolten O., Noomen G. W., Ştiinţa Comunicării, Humanitas
Publishing , Bucureşti, 1998, p. 245
11
Harrison Jackie, Woods Lorna, European Broadcasting Law and Policy, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 2007, p. 4

7
 In short, the core values of public television in European Union countries are the
following:
- Providing people with no technical or economic restrictions, universal access to programs;
- Programs of all kinds;

- A high quality of all programs (in the European Union, public television is synonymous with
what is supposed to be quality in broadcasting);

- Capacity to innovate, taking risks for certain productions, originality;

- Informing, educating and "public entertainment" enrich the social life of the audience;

- Supporting social cohesion and integration;

- Reflection and maintaining cultural and national identity;

- Developing regional programs for maintaining the cultural identity of minorities;

- Independent news programs;

- Factual programs for informed citizen.

Born and Poser authors have condensed the basic values of European public broadcasters in
three core values12:

- Citizenship

- Universality

-Quality

From the values listed above, it is clear that the civic dimension of public television is
everything. Han Report 1984, Report on Radio and Television Broadcasting, is considered the
beginning of a common EU-wide broadcasting. European Parliament since then initiated a
series of debates on pluralism, protection of diversity of opinion, the need to protect these
values in an environment increasingly dominated and more and more commercial. Public
Television is considered a solution to these trends. European institutions have recognized the
public television as an important national institution. Amsterdam Protocol on public television
recognized the importance of these institutions viewed in balance with their influence on the

12
Born G., Proser T., „Culture and consumerism: Citizenship, Public Service Broadcasting
and BBC’s Fair Trading Obligation”, The Modern Law Review, 64(5) (2003), pp. 675-678

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broadcasting market. At the same time, the risk that the interests of viewers which can be
affected by the lobby of industrial sector when the company must protect their interests, is
evaluated (it's the classic case where the environment is polluted or if the pharmaceutical
companies).

In European Union, the public television is encouraged to follow the internet model
and to adopt as quickly as they can at this digital paradigm. In this sense, the public television
must offer content and services for the small groups with individualized needs and also for the
large audience.

The development of digital technologies has created an media oversupply which has a
result the audience segmentation and the and the disappearance of the general public,
television 70s specifically. Romanian Public Television has followed this trend of
segmentation in public due to the influence of technology on the editorial, by creating
specialized channels besides the two generalist. So, TVR addresses to his internal and external
audience through the following channel: TVR 1, TVR2, TVR Cultural, TVR3 ( which has as
a model France 3), TVR Info (which is intended to be a news channel and which does not yet
have a clear editorial identity) and TVR International.

Bibliography

Baciu Nicolae, Agonia României 1944-1948, Dacia Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 1990

Born G., Proser T., „Culture and consumerism: Citizenship, Public Service Broadcasting
and BBC’s Fair Trading Obligation”, The Modern Law Review, 64(5) (2003), pp. 675-678

van Cuilenburg J. J., Scolten O., Noomen G. W., Ştiinţa Comunicării, Ed. Humanitas,
Bucureşti, 1998

Harrison Jackie, Woods Lorna, European Broadcasting Law and Policy, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 2007

Ierunca Virgil, Fenomenul Piteşti, Humanitas Publishing, Bucureşti, 1990

Stavre Ion, Reconstrucţia societăţii româneşti cu ajutorul audiovizualului, Nemira

Publishing, Bucureşti, 2004

Thomson John. B., Media şi modernitatea, o teorie socială a mass-media, Antet Publishing,
Bucureşti, 1994