Romanian Journalism

A few worrisome events shed a sick light on press freedom and “deontology”, as journos like to call the ethics of their profession. In short, those in power do not respect or understand press freedom, while quite a few “journalists” and self-described bloggers do not get their role.

The first incident is between a male magistrate with a name reminding me of a famous rapper, and a female radio editor (liro-csmfleck). I’ve read that quickly, but as far as I can tell, the magistrates are simply bullying a true journalist, doing her job, because she had assigned to her case a powerful but probably incompetent and misogynistic magistrate - Robert Fleckhammer, who appears to do the bidding of her boss. The latter is Ovidiu Miculescu (pictured), a seemingly corrupt individual who apparently used public funds for personal travel. In its decision, the government forum (I’m guessing that this is the inept and redundant bureaucratic overlayer created by PSD to enable its corrupt leaders to escape prosecution) that should have disciplined Fleckhammer, blamed the journalist for not having retained a lawyer.

So, it seems to me, that story is about an entire [male] state apparatus coming down hard on a woman reporter who dared to blow the whistle on her superior. And the counterbalancing example in the gender wars is Sidonia Bogdan who is now threatening to sue Andrei Caramitru (fbsb-actiona), following their fracas, because “it’s the first time, in the 15 years of free press, that she feels harassed and attacked”. He also celebrates her earlier post (fbac-takedown): “Perfect Takedown. I declare myself satisfied. The public space is cleaner now. Less manipulation and ad hominem.”

This last sordid story reminds me of “profa de bataie”, where a woman starts a stupid fight, and when she gets what she sowed, she starts crying wolf.

bloggers

If the journalists situation is this bad, we should place our hope in bloggers, right? Well, there’s one blogger whom I called ZBiM, who writes in his “cum /arata-boicotul-dupa-reclama-proasta/” that after Gillette’s “toxic masculinity” ad, the brand is doing poorly, as it is on sale. A video shows a bunch of Gillette products on sale at 25% or 30% off. I can’t find that video, but here’s another one with a bit more info and the same sales tags. As you might be able to see from the prices, Rexall is a higher priced pharmacy / convenience store than market leader Shoppers Drugmart (SDm), with regular sales that are usually higher priced even while on sale than SDm. You can find a newer sale and an older (before the commercial) for comparison purposes (rfd-rxgill1, rfd-rxgill2). So those sales are a regular occurrence, for almost all brands, and are happening whether or not there is a questionable commercial.

Interestingly, this same blogger, regularly providing tips, advice and consulting for others, had an expired certificate for quite a few hours on August 30.

In yet another questionable article, a blogger peddling a seduction book seems to be plagiarizing.. me!

And that’s why, when Gabriela Firea, the capital city mayor, takes a blogger to court for reasons not entirely clear (or was it because of reputation?!), it was a wee bit difficult to feel for them.

*(*This article is unfinished – it was scheduled to appear in the hope that it will be finished before, but since this message is here and until it is removed, the article is to be considered work in progress*)*.

Sources / More info: liro-csmfleck, fbsb-actiona, fbac-takedown, hn-sidoac, rfd-rxgill1, rfd-rxgill2,

zaMo numerut, journos, journalism, jurnalism, reputatie, reputation, pr, public relations (Tags)