U.S. Ambassador about censorship of Radu Mazare "I think that Ceausescu would have been proud of him" (video)

On his two days visit in Constanta, His Excellency, U.S. Ambassador Mark Gitenstein, has kindly given us an exclusive interview # On this occasion, His Excellency spoke about the direction it has taken the mass media in Romania, its future and about the censorship that Mayor Radu Mazare applied through the distribution of media, trying to shut down our newspaper in late 2009

" It is so obvious that it illustrated bad judgment, insensitivity and straight obnoxiousness. It is hard to seriously comment on something that stupid. Anybody that doesn't understand that this would be offensive does not deserve to be taken seriously. As for the censorship of the press by the Mayor, it is one of the most blatant I've heard about here. And it's an action that Ceausescu would have been proud of" said U.S. ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein.

1. Several months ago you said that the Romanian media has an aggressive style. In your opinion, what is the line between aggressiveness of the press and freedom of expression of the Romanian press?

Your press is here very aggressive; it also, unfortunately, is taking a lot of wrong lessons from the United States. This is obviously true with the electronic media, which is doing the same thing in United States in respect with cable media in particular. For example, in the U.S. there are two cable networks; one is MSNBC and the other one is Fox News. And they have decided that the way to make money is to identify a particular segment of the population and just play with that segment. So if they have a particular bias that is very conservator or very liberal, the media tends to be very conservator or very liberal and not very objective.

And so, there's a lot of bias in your media, just like there is in US and is very aggressive. So it is aggressive and bias. I noticed in the election eve. Actually it is about the election night when each network, depending on what its bias was, listed different exit polls. So if it was pro Geoana, the exit polls were pro Geoana, if it was pro Basescu, the exit polls were pro Basescu, clearly to be very objective indicators for bias. And I think there is also evidence that you have largely concentration in the sense that there are oligarchs or big media interests, that have also business interests, that have political interests that they are trying to implement them through the media. But, that is not necessarily a free press issue, because in the United States they have the right to express they opinion as well. The question for you really is does your audience get the information they need? And that's the function of how easy it is for new media to get into the market. Can new publication get in, can publication survive and are publications discriminated against by the government? And I think one of the worst examples I've heard of, here in Romania, is what happened to your newspaper.

And other two things I find disturbing are the fact that the government here pays for a lot of advertising on media, so in fact subsidizes the media, and there seems to be some efforts to manipulate public television here. Also witch I think are free press issues. So, I see those are your free press issues. What happened to your newspaper is a seriously free press issue.

The other is a bad development that can't be fixed necessarily by the government, but has to be other that can insure that the new media could get in, hand out the money and substance is not used against the content.

There is been some talk about antitrust enforcement. And that depends after is made an analysis whether there really is a concentration of those people or some particular media organizations have the monopoly and are trying to keep people out of the market. I'm not an expert enough to know whether is actually happening here. I won't be surprised if it is, but I don't know that is happening.

2. How do you see freedom of the pres in our country? Based on the impressions you've made while living in Romania, what is the direction in which Romanian press is heading?

That depends entirely on where the business of media in this country is going. The same thing happens here as is happening in the United States. In the United States alternative media like the Internet are gaining market share and the segment of cable is gaining market share over the traditional electronic media. And that can be a good thing because it means there is access by alternative sources of information.

If this happens and the alternative media begins to substitute for the traditional media you're going to have competition in the media business, which will be very helpful for the freedom of speech and expression. But if the media is limited to these traditional forms of media such newspapers and television, I'm concern about this concentration and monopoly, but I'm more concerned about the posible efforts by the government to manipulate media.

It can either be the handed kind of stuff what happened here, where the Mayor tryed to actually shut down a newspaper or it can be more subtle things for the government through its founding mechanism attempts to manipulate public television or through its advertising to manipulate newspapers. Quite frankly, I think the government should pay nothing to newspapers or TV. Is should be no subsidize what so ever. Except for public television and public radio which should be insulated by a independent board of directors as it is in the United States. In public television it should be very strict rules against any effort to influence content.

3. What do you think about the fact that "thanks" to our newspaper and to his censorship over the media, but also because of the Nazi uniform he wore at a fashion show, the Mayor of Constanta, Radu Mazare, was mentioned in the U.S. State Department report ?

When I went to Law School it was a legal expression I've learned when I was in my first year of Law School, and the expression is in Latin "Res ipsa loquitur", which means "The thing speaks for itself".

It is so obvious that it illustrated bad judgment, insensitivity and straight obnoxiousness. It is hard to seriously comment on something that stupid.

I'm a Romanian-American Jew, so I know something about what happened to my relatives, both here and in the Republic of Moldova. Anybody that doesn't understand that this would be offensive does not deserve to be taken seriously.

As for the censorship over the press by the Mayor, it is one of the most blatant efforts to censor I've heard about here. And it's an action that Ceausescu would have been proud of. Will I say more?

Shutting down of a newspaper, or attempt to do so, as happened with your newspaper, is a clear example of violation of antitrust law. In the U.S., in your case, the damage caused during the period when the newspaper was not accepted, should be paid triple by those responsible. If these kiosks would be held in the U.S. distribution, the Mayor would have to pay you three times the losses. This is how it really works an anti-trust law. This would be one of the differences between the U.S. and other countries. It is a clear example of how control is used improperly.

To be continued in tomorrow's edition