Friday, March 05 2004: The Investigative Journalism in Local Press Turned into

The Owner’s watchdog

By Sorin Ozon, Liviu Avram and Stefan Cândea

Last year, on December the 3rd, a journalist from Timisoara goes home crossing town, after a workday in the editorial office. Ion Ardelean didn’t get to spend the evening with his family, but to end up semi conscious in a bed of the County Hospital.He woke up in a pool of blood, after having been attacked violently from behind by a group of aggressors. The double-fractured mandible and the multiple wounds kept the Timisoara journalist in the hospital, away from the criticizing articles and the investigations he accustomed his readers with. The aggressors haven’t been identified till now, three months after the attack.

Two weeks later, hundreds of kilometers away. The journalist Zoltan Szondy from Miercurea Ciuc gets as a Christmas present several blows by a crowbar, especially in the head. He was attacked in the staircase of the building he was living in. The aggressors weren’t identified in this case either.

The two journalists have for sure one thing in common: before the violent attacks in December, they had issued several investigation articles, criticizing financially or politically potent persons in the county.

These weren’t the only aggressions suffered by journalists in the 21st century Romania, about to adhere to NATO and in the middle of the campaign to accede to the European Union. These cases are of course evident alarm signals with respect to the conditions in which journalists do their job in Romania. But more than that. The articles that caused trouble and provoked attacks upon their authors, are investigation articles, that sort of articles that show up lesser and lesser in the national and local press. From this, CRJI together with Transparency International and the Press Monitoring Agency attempt to establish all elements that impede the issuing of investigation articles, especially in the local mass media. To this purpose, the CRJI journalists went to 12 large towns in the country, interviewing journalists, newspapers’ owners, local politicians, and businessmen.

The only investigative journalist in Miercurea Ciuc is also a town councilor
In Miercurea Ciuc privatization didn’t reach the only local papers. “Adevarul Harghitei” and “Harghita Nepe” are still belonging to the Local Council that pumps up the two papers with money when needed. “Hargita Nepe” is written in Hungarian, for which purpose is issued in a larger number of copies, while sales and advertising paying up (The County Council rarely finances this newspaper). There is no issue of young journalists to be hired by these newspapers. The two papers have in common an aged editorial staff. The same journalists that used to write about the great accomplishments of the beloved leader are making press today. This is why investigation articles seldom show up in the two newspapers’ pages.
The aged editorial staff does not hire young journalists that might want to investigate. In Miercurea Ciuc we also encountered a problem in the perception of investigative journalism. Beginning with politicians and ending up with journalists, they all believe that if newspapers write about a rumor or a critical article, this is investigative journalism. This is exactly why in Miercurea Ciuc we could not find but a single journalist that attempts investigating. Szondy Zoltan, a journalist with “Hargita Nepe” came forward when he was savagely beaten in the building’s staircase, after having written some articles on a local charming character known as a mobman. Nobody knows for sure who the aggressors were just yet. Szondy Zoltan is not just a journalist. He is a member of the Local Council, a member of the National Szeckler Council (that militates for obtaining the territorial and administrative autonomy of the Covasna, Harghita and Mures counties) and a future candidate for the Harghita City Hall.
It is interesting that in spite of all the above-mentioned, both politicians and journalists answer positive without thinking too much when being asked “is there any investigative journalism in the local press”.

Investigation in the Baia Mare written press
In Baia Mare, even if there is no much investigative press to be printed, the situation is promising. As compared with the situation in the previous years, there were visible investments made in the written press, and even more than that, new papers appeared. There are two important dailies (“Graiul Maramuresului” and “Glasul Maramuresului”) and a new weekly (“Gazeta de Maramures”) owned by a Cluj press holding, with newspapers in many towns in the country. It is interesting that a few years ago, when the financial situation of the newspapers was difficult and there was no major investment, the investigation articles were issued more often in the Baia-Mare newspapers and they were more incisive. Nevertheless, the competition between the three-four newspapers in Baia-Mare is benefic to the local press. Each newspaper tried to find something new or to adopt successful styles for defeating competition. Unfortunately, investigation articles do not find their place in this strategy. The market leader is “Glasul Maramuresului” (whose main shareholder is a local businessman) that adopted a daring layout, suffocated readers with contests, but also remained the most critical newspaper in the town.

Cluj is the first as investigation articles are concerned
In Cluj the situation is much more special and more complicated. The development of a local press holding owning several publications (including some in other seven-eight towns in the country, among them Baia-Mare) left all competition behind and managing to have an actual monopoly in the local press. Other important newspapers are two in Hungarian – “Kronika” and “Szabadsag”, “Evenimentul de Cluj” and “Monitorul de Cluj”. For the time being the most important newspapers in Cluj are the daily “Buna Ziua Ardeal” and the weekly “Gazeta de Cluj” (both belonging to the same owner) that are full of investigation articles. In spite all these, the first one is issued in 4,000 copies a day and the other is issued in 3,500 copies a week. Because of the traditional colleges in town, the Cluj press is offered a “journalists” category other towns don’t have: students.
Many students knock on the editorial offices’ doors, while attending first years of studies. They are preferred because of many reasons: they are not expensive, they write relatively correct, and, after all, only the best surpass. This aspect allowed putting aside the older investigation journalists (with more than 5 years experience in the field) and replacing them with young journalists among the students. The oldest of journalists made their investigations with the help of the local secret service offices’ workers or in other ways, totally unprofessional. Thus there came up enough corruption accusations and endless manipulation and misinformation games through the press uncovering. There are also cases of old journalists that were put aside because the conflicts with the owners. Or just because younger and cheaper journalists were preferred. In spite all these, Cluj is one of the national leaders of the local investigative press. The overflow of investigation subjects locally issued leads to a distressing phenomenon: articles are simply copied by local correspondents of central dailies. In Cluj, some correspondence do nothing but to get and to sign articles previously issued by their colleagues in the local press, that they send afterwards to Bucharest.

Brasov – disaster in the written press
At the press kiosks in Brasov you can buy six local titles. Among them, “Transilvania Expres” is the most asked for newspaper, reaching 10 thousand copies sold. The shareholders of the newspaper, made up by local financially potent businessmen, allow “Transilvania Expres” to also take a critical position towards the governing party. Local journalists and even businessmen accuse the publication of being more and more favorable to PSD. A mere unusual thing: the chief editor of the newspaper, Enache Stoica, decided to run for Mayor in Brasov, as an independent candidate. The present Mayor, Ioan Ghise, accuses openly the candidate journalist of alliances with the local PSD and PD leaders and of the only investigation articles to be issued in the “Transilvania Expres” of targeting the City Hall: “They accuse me of something every day, without issuing also my point of view. They modify the journalists’ articles if they are not aggressive enough”. We have to mention that nowadays, Stoica is not to be found in the editorial frame as chief-editor.

The other local newspapers in Brasov are smothered by poverty/misery. The local press was broken by different tricks, and thus “Buna Ziua Brasov”, “Monitorul Expres”, “Gazeta de Transilvania”, “Obiectiv” and “Monitorul de Brasov” sell from about few hundreds of copies (the case of “Gazeta de Transilvania”, “Obiectiv” and “Monitorul de Brasov”) to maximum 5,000 copies - “Monitorul Expres”. In most of the cases, critical articles get to precise targets dictated by the owner’s interests. As the investigations issued in Brasov are concerned – there is no such thing. We could not identify not even one investigation journalist not to be accused by fellow journalists or by politicians of serving some local political group. Marius Stoianovici, manager and chief –editor of “Monitorul Expres” (separated from “Monitorul de Brasov” after a big scandal) declared to us: “PSD wanted to break the local press, they weren’t interested in transmitting the campaign message using a strong press. Our only hope right now is a foreign investor, which would strengthen the local newspapers network. Locally, nobody can face economical, political and legal pressure.”
Ovidiu Fodor, general manager of “Buna Ziua Brasov”, considers the economic situation of Brasov to be mirrored in the written press poverty: “There is no money to support a professional editorial office, to invest it in journalists. The best of them leave right away, others migrate between editorial offices. They also use retired journalists or students who are paid very little, or rented editorial offices. And most of the newspapers are in enormous debts to the public budget, which leads to political dependence.” Fodor explains to us why journalist investigations can’t find a place in his publication: “We have followed the national newspapers trend, especially the ones that in the past used to focus on investigations. Their sales increased when they gave up step by step to such sort of press. My opinion is that people got tired of reading all sort of inference that has no continuity whatsoever.”
The lack of investigation articles in the Brasov press is considered by Mayor Ghise to be the result of the financial dependence to the local governing political core. Therefore, competent journalists can’t develop skills – and lack of competence can be seen in the newspapers’ pages.

Iasi steps forward
In Iasi, the publicist offer is very diverse, but still the investigation articles are rarer and rarer. From the eight local newspapers, you can be lucky enough to find some investigation articles only in “Ziarul de Iasi” and “Ieseanul”. All persons implicated in the local public administration support, at least orally, the presences of the investigative journalism, accepting the importance of such sort of press to the community. But when asked about the case of a corrupt politician or of a corrupt office worker to have the career suddenly interrupted by some articles in the press, the answer is none the other than: “No, we had no such cases in Iasi. This is a quiet county!” The town leaders declare themselves supporters of journalists in their efforts to research. But at their turn, journalists identify on the list of frequent obstacles the public institutions’ opacity as supplying information is concerned. Sorin Semeniuc, a journalist with “Ieseanul”, has even sued the local authorities, based on Law No 544, after being refused when requesting information of public interest.

A particularity of the Iasi media scenario is the existence of the Journalism College focused on the practical aspect of the job. The students graduating from this college have at least the experience of working with the college newspaper “Opinia Studenteasca”, with the college news agency and with a monthly online magazine. As Daniel Condurache, the manager of the “Opinia Studenteasca” declared to us, the College produces lots of very good journalists that have no where to go in the local press after graduating.

We have to mention that there are quite many investigation subjects to have origins in Iasi and to be taken over by national mass media.

The businessmen in Bacau consider the investigative journalism as inexistent
In Bacau, the publicist offer is not that diverse. There are three newspapers, and two of them have their owners directly implicated in politics. “Desteptarea”, part of the press holding with the same name, belongs to the Mayor Sechelariu. “Monitorul de Bacau” belongs to the daughter of the PD Bacau senator, Vasile Nistor. And “Ziarul de Bacau” is the property of some local businessmen.

As endowment and investment is concerned, the Mayor’s newspaper is on top. But nevertheless, the only investigation articles to come forward from the local press in the county originated from the editorial office of “Ziarul de Bacau”, a modest editorial office, when compared to the one of the former communist newspaper. And issues referring to characters like Sechelariu or Iacubov were so often locally discussed without supporting them with many details, that they lost already impact. You can hardly find investigation journalists in Bacau. Even Sechelariu admits this, and also declared to us his wish of showing corruption acts more often in his own newspaper. Possibly fine irony?
Deputy Nistor is more optimistic. He considers “Monitorul de Bacau” to be the only newspaper to issue investigation articles, but they also need some skillful investigation journalists. At the same time, Nistor has a perception at least strange on investigation journalists: “They have to remain unknown to public opinion; otherwise they would be in real danger!”

As statements referring to investigative journalism are concerned, the local authorities in Bacau were also polite, with the exception of Sechelariu, who had been also interviewed, both as a politician and as an owner of the Desteptarea Holding. Sechelariu declared that the only newspaper he trusts is his own publication, a newspaper that treats investigation issues from all fields: “This newspaper is really useful to me, especially in the City Hall. It is almost like an internal police, drawing my attention on problems or on corruption acts”. Sechelariu admits that the holding is not lucrative and that it needs financial supports from its owner, meaning his family. Even the strong Mayor felt on his own skin the pressure put on an ordinary press owner: “There was pressure, even from some party fellow colleagues, to bad from issuing this or that article. Disguised pressure. What can they threat me with? Not even with stopping me to sell the newspaper, because we have our own sales network.”

The most pessimistic locutors with regard to investigative journalism are businessmen. "No one has ever stimulated this field, and journalists didn’t understand how important it is”, declared a local businessman who wanted to remain anonymous.

In Galati local press does not attempt to do their own investigation
“Viata Libera” from Galati looks like the market leader in the town and is expanding. One of the explanations is the fact that this newspaper is the former communist daily paper, privatized after 1990, and which had always a constant market due to advertising. The employees bought the newspaper, but the majority share pack is owned by a few shareholders, actual owners of the newspaper. From the discussion we had with the manager, Radu Macovei, we found out that the newspaper has its own sales network, part of which is on private property, and even its own printing house. The only pressure on the editorial staff is referring to large advertising space and the abundance of lawsuits on insult and calumny. The newspaper manager claims that the publications issues investigation articles pretty often, but a detailed discussion with the journalists signing these investigation articles, shows that these articles are based on police files and information.

The former journalist Lili Dedu, nowadays the owner of the daily “Impartial” and of a private firemen company, considers “Viata Libera” to be too kind with the local authorities and that the only major investigations are made by the correspondents of the national newspapers. Moreover, he accuses the sales network of this newspaper of sabotaging competition newspapers that has to use the same sales network.

The town’s Mayor and prefect realize that the investigative press is very important for the local community, but they cannot give any example of a corrupt politician or public office worker to be dismissed because of a media investigation. They even identify the obstacles impeding journalists in their investigations: the difficulty to get information of public interest!

Besides the above-mentioned titles, in Galati there are also issued “Monitorul de Galati”, “Impact” and the weekly “Actualitatea”, but they have consistent support for the investigative journalism. We have to mention that the only serious investigations to come from Galati are signed by the local correspondent of “Adevarul”.

In Constanta press owners invest in their own watchdogs
Arriving in Constanta, we witness an explosion of written press titles, most of them printed in exceptionally graphic conditions. They are both dailies and weeklies. Many of the 13 titles are issued in an insignificant number of copies and they wear some of the weirdest names. For example, in Constanta they issued the weekly “Pravda” or “Contra-atac de Constanta”. But the abundant offer is not a guarantee of the articles’ quality or of the existence of good quality investigative journalism. At a closer look at the contents of the main titles, we can observe how tightly closed are the newspapers around the Constanta politically and economically interested groups. “The Mayor, the prefect and the president of the County Council have each of them their own newspaper”, declared a journalist with the local press. According to the declarations made by the journalists in Constanta, “Telegraf” is the newspaper serving the interests of the Mayor Radu Mazare, “Replica de Constanta” – of the prefect Gheorghe Martin, and “Jurnal de Constanta” serves the interests of the County Council President, Stelian Dutu. They all deny a direct implication, and most of the documents of the editorial companies support their statements. But the editorial content speaks for itself.

Another influence pole is the media holding belonging to the businessman Bosânceanu, former member and financer of PSD. His daily, “Cuget Liber” is the second large newspaper after “Telegraf”.

Looking at such a picture of the Constanta pres, we realize that in this town, the press exists only with one purpose: to protect the owner and to attack his enemies. The democracy watchdog turned into each owner’s watchdog. Because of this, journalistic investigations are lesser and lesser and auto - censorship is functioning very well with the journalists who previously used to write investigation materials. The final result is that in the second large town and the largest harbor in the country, plenty of issued that are worth investigating are simply forgotten. Catalin Siclitaru, junior chief editor of “Jurnal de Constanta”, talked to us about the pressure he was put upon as an employee of the “Independentul”, pressure that determined him to activate an efficient auto- censorship system. “I had enough subjects that were banned by the newspaper, because of political or economical reasons of the owner. If our investigation articles had been on some partners of the owner, or on some companies buying advertising in the newspaper, they would have been banned.” Catalin Siclitaru even told us about attacks initiated by the newspaper’s owner to gain publicity. Not even the overall accepted investigation would be issued as such. Their final meaning was modified without explanation.

As it happens in some other town where local investigations are smothered, the only chance for taboo subjects to be issued in Constanta are the local correspondents of the national publications. But these aren’t that easily to contact locally.

Besides Mayor Radu Mazare, the other representatives of the local authorities are aware of the investigative journalism in town. But the Mayor considers that this sort of press does not exist. What would be the main cause? “The journalists’ incapacity to provide evidence for the stories.” At the same time, Mazare considers the professional incompetence to be the only obstacle of issuing investigation articles. “Journalists only point out corruption acts, but they do not support them with relevant documents”. Mayor Mazare also claims incorrect practice at some journalists or press institutions, declaring he was attacked in the press just with the purpose of gaining favors.

In Timisoara you can no longer be a local investigation journalist
Being considered to be a “cool” county as investigative journalism is concerned, Timis faces a decay of this journalistic genre as media vectors’ number to practice it is concerned. Newspapers previously known to for their free approaches of any issues, are nowadays in the position of avoiding some fields, especially the ones near the government men. A journalist previously known for the sharpness of his articles confessed he was expressly forbidden to write on a local influent politician, because the collateral business of his employers might have been affected. Even if he had the opportunity to transfer to another publication, the journalist declared that the chose to keep his job out of loyalty for the chief editor, who had supported him with in his conflict with the employers. “Prima ora” belongs to Dan Ioan Sipos, the president of the County Counsil Timis, and it is simply understood that in this newspaper there are no investigation articles against the government. But there are enough attacks against the uncomfortable journalists. “Renasterea Banateana” seldom issues investigation articles, preferring to keep a neutral attitude, of an informative newspaper. A special note can be felt at the market leader, represented by the “Agenda” holding that issued the local daily “Agenda zilei” and the regional weekly “Agenda”. The owner and the manager of “Agenda”, Zoltan Covacs, refused systematically to issue investigation articles: “We are strictly an informative publication, as we have declared ourselves 14 years ago and the newspapers do just fine. Investigation newspapers have died meanwhile, but we are still here.” When asked whether the influence of his publications might make him reconsider his attitude towards investigative journalism, Zoltan Covacs replied: “Why ruining something working smoothly? Anyway, a good quality investigative journalism can not be made unless you have reliable sources among secret service workers. This is not our case.” At the moment, Timisoara journalists claim in one voice that the most appropriate position to allow investigative journalism would be the one of a local correspondent of the national publications.

Mehedinti – lack of specialized journalists
Local newspapers seldom approach investigations, mainly due to the lack of specialized journalists. The market leader, “Datina”, belongs to George Buretea, who is at the same time a manager with the County Council, which probably affects in some degree the facility to straightforwardly take on sensitive issues. Other publications, such as “Sever Press” or “Obiectiv Mehedintean”, hardly ever issue investigation articles and they are often seen as a result of underground disputes between different power nucleuses. The low economic capacity of the region also leads to the publications being extremely fragile in front of economic pressure. The situation is slightly improved by having other regional publications such as “Gazeta de Sud”, “Editie Speciala de Oltenia” and “Opinia Olteniei”, all edited in Craiova, but also having editorial offices in Drobeta Turnu Severin. The geographic distance between Drobeta Turnu Severin and Craiova attenuates the direct contact between the local authorities in Mehedinti and the decision centers of publications, which leads to slightly permissive premises for approaching investigation subjects.

In Craiova press is free, journalists are are not
The picture of Craiova press is a pretty colorful and diverse one. Publications that make a difference are regional dailies “Gazeta de Sud” (the market leader), “Editie Speciala de Oltenia”, “Opinia Olteniei” and the local daily “Cuvantul libertatii”. They all approach, in a higher or a lesser degree, investigation subjects, but we can find here too enough restraints, especially of economic nature. Even if media owner tend to claim lack of inhibitions in taking on any subject, all interviewed journalists claim that such statements should bear amendments. What strikes when looking at the Craiova media environment is the fact that journalists have the strong idea to serve in the first place the interests of the owners, which makes them embrace resignation pretty easily when their researches or their materials are banned as such. Most of the times, explanations given to reporters are of economic nature, which makes standing up impossible. The newspapers’ owners are influent businessmen, most of the time holding fighting interests, and this leads people to get the feeling that each publication “belongs” to a certain group of interest. This is might be exactly the reason why the Craiova press gives this feeling of being diverse. Using other words we can say that the Craiova press is free, but the journalists are not.

Pitesti – investigative journalism of “diplomatic” manner
The Arges market leader is, by far, the daily “Agenda zilei”. The owner and the manager of the publication, Constantin Negut, says that he allows the issuing of investigations, but in a more nuanced manner. He is convinced that the national press can promote this sort of journalism more easily, because the journalist usually writes about people he knows not. Negut says that a local newspaper of a relatively small community must approach journalism, including investigative journalism, in a more “diplomatic” manner that can leave free all communication channels with the targeted ones. Other publications (“Observator”, “Societatea argeseana”, and Top) are issued in smaller numbers of copies and they are considered to belong to the influence zone of the PSD leaders. The weekly “7 zile” issued many investigation articles and had to face big problems, including the refusal to be printed. A little time ago, the publication was bought by a PRM Parliament member, when more journalists had to leave and to remain unemployed or to be only collaborators of central publications.

Instead of conclusions
After making researches in the above-mentioned 12 towns of Romania, we can draw a single conclusion: investigative press in local mass media is about to disappear. No wonder about it, as it follows in a more quickly rhythm the tendency of the national coverage publications. Defectively trained journalists, ready to compromise, greedy press owners, corrupted politicians and businessmen putting extraordinary pressure upon journalists – each of them has its part of blameworthiness.

All journalists crave for foreign investors to finance strong local networks that can allow them to approach a larger sphere of subjects. The only hope of the journalists determined to make investigations is national publications, a rather shallow hope right now. The wages of experienced journalists of local mass-media do not exceed Euro 200, which rapidly leads to corruption acts, but also to lack of interest in journalistic performances. In many cases, investigations get to be made after handed out files or to depend only on sources taking ones side and to attack precise targets on order.

Breaking up local press and destroying advertising market is another factor impeding the issuing of investigation articles. Having more newspapers in one town is not a guarantee of a good quality editorial offer, but in the contrary. At the same time, fewer newspapers in a town show the existence of a single group of interests which has the monopoly of the press. In both cases, the editorial product is weak and lacks credibility. Critical and investigative journalism has no chance to develop and to reach high professional standards in such a vitiated environment. The democracy watchdog sharpened its teeth but left the post. It turned into the owner’s watchdog, no matter who would that be.

Study financed by a PHARE program

Stefan Candea, stefancandea@crji.org
Sorin Ozon, sorinozon@crji.org