Governing Liberals claim most news on Romania public television

Luni, 28 ianuarie 2008, 14:44 English | Politics

The editorial policy of the news department at Romania's public television TVR has changed for the past year as compared to 2006, according to statistics provided by Monitoring Media. The governing Liberals (PNL) appeared in 41% of the political news of the main news broadcast of the TVR1 channel by the end of 2007, way up from the 22% reported the previous year. Meanwhile, little over 12% of the news refer of Democratic-Liberal (PD-L) politicians and some 16% report on Social Democrats (PSD, main opposition group).

In 2006, representatives of the new PD-L party, formed of the former Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, appeared in some 25% of the political news on TVR, while PSD - in 23% of the news reports.

By the end of 2006, SRTv, the society running the public television stations, was run by president-general manager Tudor Giurgiu, while reputed journalist Rodica Culcer served as head of the News Department. In November-December 2007, the head of the station was Alexandru Sassu, a politician, while the News department was run by journalist Madalina Radulescu.

The politicians who appeared most during the TVR 1 main prime-time news bulletin were President Traian Basescu and Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu.