Mass media during the communist regime in Romania (a personal view)

The article “Radio and the fall of communism” by John Tusa reflects very well what deprivation of information meant and how people tried to inform themselves in other way than listening or watching the “official” radio and television from the communist countries. I agree with Tusa who concludes: “…there was a huge discrepancy between what individuals saw as the facts of life and what their government and party told them was reality”. (13)

Mass media represented in all communist countries a tool of propaganda, of manipulation and lying of citizens. Starting from this article, I will share a part of what meant media in Romania before 1989. Many aspects revealed by the article characterized the communist period from Romania from 1965 to 1989.

The communist mass media system from Romania was entirely controlled by the government: all types of TV and radio programs and all types of print articles.
The viewers could watch TV programs only three hours per day. Each TV program started and ended with the national hymn. It was followed by news, cartoons (5-10 minutes), a movie and others programs dedicated to the president of Romania Nicolae Ceausescu and to the Communist Party.

The news program idolized Ceausescu and the Romanian Communist Party. The news was sprinkled with sound bites. Crowds of people from different towns of Romania participated at some special events organized by the propaganda apparatus in large public squares in order to celebrate the realizations of different institutions and they were directed to chant: “Long live Ceausescu, long live Romania!”.
The news were focused on the zeal of the workers from factories, industry and agriculture, on the exports made by Romania in others countries, on the visit of Ceausescu in other countries. The main character of almost all programs was Ceausescu. His wife didn’t miss either. In contrast with this type of news, the viewers could see, as bad news, information about “the disasters” from the capitalist countries (for example: the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, significant stock exchange drops and the craziness thereafter, and worker strikes) in order to inoculate in the mind of Romanians the idea that the communist political system means prosperity and stability.

The most important part of TV and radio programs were dedicated to Ceausescu. The audience could watch and listen interminable songs and poetry about the dictator and his “realm”. One of the most popular TV program was “The Ode of Romania”. It was basically a sort of continuous festival, a compilation of different brainwashing shows organized in different parts of the country in honor of Ceausescu and the Party. Many other ridiculous TV programs followed in line, for example, “Guarding the Motherland”, which informed the audience about the bravery of the army and about their strong preparation for eventual attacks of some elusive enemy.
Sometimes, the viewers could watch, after the news bulletins, Romanian, and Russian movies. In 1970s Western movies with John Wayne were broadcasted (but that was cut in the 1980s), documentaries for popularizing the science, such as: “Travel in the Univers” by the American astrophysicist Carl Sagan. The Romanian viewers enjoyed, on Sunday, in the afternoon, short episodes from American serials, such as “Dallas”, or the Brazilian serial “Paulista Boulevard”. All was in order to show the “decomposition” of the capitalist society.

The children enjoyed cartoons with Romanian, Polish and Russian characters: “Lolek and Bolek”, “Miaunel and Balanel” (something like Mieowy and White Spot) and The Wolf and the Bunny, of maximum 10 minutes each day. Only, on Sunday, the audience could watch Disney cartoons as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” also for about 10 minutes, which extended the presentation of a single movie to about half a year.

The censorship in Romanian communist media was very strong. At the end of 1980s the vocabulary of different publications and broadcast programs was cleaned by foreign words. Step by step were interdicted the programs for learning foreign languages. Only the programs dedicated to national minorities were broadcasted.

In the same period the subscriptions for foreign publications were interdicted. After the Michael Gorbaciov coming to power in Kremlin and after the breaking of political relations between Romania and Russia, the access, - free until then – of Romanians at Soviet press was stopped. All movies and TV programs, all publications or any product of Western economy became prohibit in order to not to shadow the “grandiose achievements” of Romanian economy.

It was very boring to read the print newspapers. The articles were characterized by the so called “wooden language”, consisting of a narrow selection of words and fixed-style phrases. Everything was presented as strong, grandiose, lofty, triumphant, successful, victorious, etc.
The titles of newspapers were really hilarious: for example: “Free Romania”. Free Romania who? People were spied upon even in their houses. My father, for example, listened “The Voice of America” on the radio and “Free Europe” with some other member of the family keeping watch at the door… During his listening, my grandfather stayed as a guard at door and my mother walked around the house in order to assure herself that there are no Securitate agents spying around the house… The news were discussed afterwards.

Nowadays the press freedom and the freedom of Romanians to inform themselves is not a problem any longer, but the political system still inherits habits from the past has not fully taken its grip from mass media. Now, mass media is controlled by more political voices in comparison with communist period. Especially, the Romanian Public Television is manipulated politically.
Many of the press trusts are owned and coordinated by political leaders, therefore the information of the audience is not always objective. But Romania, as other ex-Communist countries, is passing through a transition period from many points of view even that regarding the relation between mass media, political power and public opinion. At the same time the transition from the communist to the capitalist system needs time. Eighteen years passed from the fall of Communist Party, but it is still not enough in order to have a mass media system similar with the Western media system.

Maria Iova