ABSTRACT
In 2014, several unexpected social actors made their voices clearly heard, asking for media accountability and transparency in Romania: the justice system, through the National Anticorruption Directorate and the National Agency of Fiscal Administration, and the public, through social networks. Noticeable events started to appear during the summer. These events included judiciary processes related to blackmail money, bribery money, public money, tax money – and jail. All cases are examples of the same problem within the Romanian media: the instrumentalization of newsrooms by politicians and by businesspeople. The process is a continuation of a communist phenomenon: before 1989, each Communist Party in Central and Eastern Europe instrumentalized journalism, using mass media as a propaganda tool. The mechanisms are the same but the ends are slightly different, and they include the creation of private fortunes. Established instruments of media accountability and media-related authorities, like the National Audio-Visual Council, did not challenge this instrumentalization logic in a dramatic manner. Ironically, the National Anticorruption Directorate, the National Agency of Fiscal Administration and the public seem to work better for the Romanian media than the media professionals themselves.
