The Power of Television: Including the Historicizing of the Live Romanian Revolution Daniela Mustata ISBN 978-90-393-54933 Copyright © 2011 by Daniela Mustata All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Cover photos: „Statia Intelsat Cheia‟ by Serachitopol Sorin Cristian & „Ceausescu 21 Decembrie 1989‟ by TVR Printed by All Print, Utrecht, the Netherlands The Power of Television: Including the Historicizing of the Live Romanian Revolution De kracht van televisie: inclusief een historische duiding van de live uitzending van de Roemeense Revolutie (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Le pouvoir de la télévision : y compris une interprétation historique de la Révolution Roumaine en direct (avec un résumé en français) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. J.C. Stoof, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 des ochtends te 10.30 uur. door Daniela Mustata geboren op 11 juli 1979 te Slatina, Roemenië Promotor: Prof. dr. J. S. de Leeuw Co-promotor: Dr. A. Fickers Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................................. i. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Writing Romanian Television History .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Research Question and Theoretical Foundations ......................................................................................................................... 4 Methods and Approaches .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Structure of the Dissertation ........................................................................................................................................................ 13 Sources .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Historical Glossary........................................................................................................................................................................18 Television Technology and Infrastructures as Social Agents........................................................................................................... 27 The What Variable: Technological Capital of Romanian Television .......................................................................................... 30 The Nationalistic Regime of Technological Management ..................................................................................................... 30 Transmission Break-offs at Romanian television as Technopolitics ..................................................................................... 33 The denationalized regime of technological management .................................................................................................... 35 The Where Variable: Places of Technological Performances...................................................................................................... 39 The regime of subversive cross-overs: ................................................................................................................................... 40 Technopolitics of (banned) transmissions ............................................................................................................................. 40 The regime of local fragmentations: ...................................................................................................................................... 43 Technopolitics of private TV licensing and distribution coverage ........................................................................................ 43 The How Variable: Performing Technology and Infrastructures ............................................................................................... 47 The Regime of Exclusion: Technopolitics of Live Broadcasting ............................................................................................ 48 The Regime of Inclusion: Technopolitics of News Transmissions ........................................................................................ 50 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................................. 53 A History of Power: Stories of Romanian Television ....................................................................................................................... 58 The Taming of a Medium: Stages of Development ..................................................................................................................... 62 The Regime of Experimental Visions: the Generation under the Mulberry Tree ...................................................................... 64 The Regime of Hegemonic Tensions: Controllers, Surveillers versus the Television Experts.................................................... 71 The Dictatorial Regime: the Televised Staging of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu ........................................................................ 77 The Live Revolution and the Birth of the Free Romanian Television .........................................................................................81 Post-89 Romanian Television: From the Regime of Communist Translations to a Post-Communist Regime ........................ 86 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................................. 96 The Securitate: Disputing Private Spaces of Television Broadcasting .......................................................................................... 102 Operation Malicius .................................................................................................................................................................... 104 Television Reception Goes Public ........................................................................................................................................ 104 Classifying the Socially-Disfavoured .................................................................................................................................... 108 Surveilling Dissident Spaces of Television Broadcasting .......................................................................................................... 113 Romanian Broadcast Dissidents Abroad .............................................................................................................................. 113 Foreign Journalists inside Romania ..................................................................................................................................... 121 Television and Social Action .......................................................................................................................................................124 The Live Romanian Television ..............................................................................................................................................124 Fabricating the „terrorist‟ ...................................................................................................................................................... 130 Fabricating the „hooligan‟ during the Live Miners‟ Strikes in June 1990 ............................................................................. 132 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................................. 135 Reassembling a History of Romanian Television Programmes...................................................................................................... 143 The Emergence of a New Communications Medium ................................................................................................................. 147 The Artistic Regime: Experimenting Art Forms on Early Television .................................................................................. 148 The Regime of Flow: Consolidating and Popularizing Television-Specific Forms .............................................................. 151 A Maturated Medium .................................................................................................................................................................158 The Regime of Editorial Negotiations: Ranking out Genres on Romanian Television ........................................................158 The Regime of Politicizing Broadcast Content ...................................................................................................................... 177 Programming the Live Revolution ...........................................................................................................................................