COUNTRY REPORT MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA: ROMANIA Mapping Digital Media: Romania A REPORT BY THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS WRITTEN BY Manuela Proteasa and Iulian Comanescu (lead reporters) Ioana Ava˘dani and Adrian Vasilache (reporters) EDITED BY Marius Dragomir and Mark Thompson (Open Society Media Program editors) EDITORIAL COMMISSION Yuen-Ying Chan, Christian S. Nissen, Dusˇan Reljic´, Russell Southwood, Michael Starks, Damian Tambini OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM TEAM Biljana Tatomir, deputy director; Meijinder Kaur, program assistant; Morris Lipson, senior legal advisor; Miguel Castro, special projects manager; and Gordana Jankovic, director OPEN SOCIETY INFORMATION PROGRAM TEAM Vera Franz, senior program manager; Darius Cuplinskas, director 4 December 2010 Contents Mapping Digital Media ..................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 6 Context ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Social Indicators ................................................................................................................................ 12 1. Media Consumption: Th e Digital Factor .......................................................................... 14 1.1 Digital Take-up ......................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Media Preferences ..................................................................................................... 18 1.3 News Providers ......................................................................................................... 21 1.4 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 26 2. Digital Media and Public or State-Administered Broadcasters ........................................... 28 2.1 Public Service and State Institutions ......................................................................... 28 2.2 Public Service Provision ............................................................................................ 32 2.3 Assessments ............................................................................................................. 34 3. Digital Media and Society ................................................................................................. 36 3.1 User-Generated Content (UGC) .............................................................................. 36 3.2 Digital Activism ........................................................................................................ 41 3.3 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 42 2 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ROMANIA 4. Digital Media and Journalism ........................................................................................... 43 4.1 Impact on Journalists and Newsrooms ...................................................................... 43 4.2 Investigative Journalism ............................................................................................ 45 4.3 Social and Cultural Diversity .................................................................................... 47 4.4 Political Diversity ..................................................................................................... 48 4.5 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 49 5. Digital Media and Technology .......................................................................................... 51 5.1 Spectrum .................................................................................................................. 51 5.2 Digital Gatekeeping .................................................................................................. 53 5.3 Telecommunications ................................................................................................. 54 5.4 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 56 6. Digital Business ................................................................................................................ 58 6.1 Ownership ................................................................................................................ 58 6.2 Media Funding ......................................................................................................... 67 6.3 Media Business Models ............................................................................................. 72 6.4 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 72 7. Policies, Laws, and Regulators ........................................................................................... 74 7.1 Policies and Laws ...................................................................................................... 74 7.2 Regulators ................................................................................................................ 77 7.3 Government Interference .......................................................................................... 79 7.4 Assessments .............................................................................................................. 81 8. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 82 8.1 Media Today ............................................................................................................. 82 8.2 Media Tomorrow ...................................................................................................... 84 9. Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 86 List of Abbreviations, Figures, Tables, Companies ............................................................................. 87 OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 3 Mapping Digital Media Th e values that underpin good journalism, the need of citizens for reliable and abundant information, and the importance of such information for a healthy society and a robust democracy: these are perennial, and provide compass-bearings for anyone trying to make sense of current changes across the media landscape. Th e standards in the profession are in the process of being set. Most of the eff ects on journalism imposed by new technology are shaped in the most developed societies, but these changes are equally infl uencing the media in less developed societies. Th e Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policy-makers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate and infl uence change. At the same time, this research creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity and enhancing debate. Th e Media Program of the Open Society Foundations has seen how changes and continuity aff ect the media in diff erent places, redefi ning the way they can operate sustainably while staying true to values of pluralism and diversity, transparency and accountability, editorial independence, freedom of expression and information, public service, and high professional standards. Th e Mapping Digital Media project assesses, in the light of these values, the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the following developments: the switchover from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting, growth of new media platforms as sources of news, convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes aff ect the core democratic service that any media system should provide – news about political, economic and social aff airs. 4 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA ROMANIA Th e aim of the Mapping Digital Media project is to assess the impact of these changes on the core democratic service that any media system should provide, namely news about political, economic and social aff airs. Th e Mapping Digital Media reports are produced by local researchers and partner organizations in each country. Cumulatively, these reports will provide a much-needed resource on the democratic role of digital media. In addition to the country reports, the Open Society Media Program has commissioned research papers on a range of topics related to digital media. Th ese papers are published as the MDM Reference Series. OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2011 5 Mapping Digital Media: Romania Executive Summary Romania was hit very hard by the economic crisis of 2008–2009, which slowed the remarkable growth of Romania’s television, print and online sectors over the previous decade, especially in 2001–2004. While this growth increased the diversity of content, it did little for quality. Investment in good-quality news and debate programs has fallen over the past fi ve years.With no tradition of good-quality print media and the non-existence of a newspaper market in rural areas (where almost half the population lives),