Romanian President Takes On The Media For Not Loving Him

Sunday, in summery clothes, and with a new zest for life after his back surgery a month ago in Vienna, to fix a herniated disc, Romanian President Traian Basescu visited the book fair Bookfest.

He talked for half an hour, with no apparent aim, except for the television cameras to get footage for the evening news.

Pretty risky business for Basescu, to venture into the land of books and literature...

And yet it was worth it, as he plunged into one of his favorite subjects: the media, or rather the way the media treated him.

As usually, he made blanket accusations against all journalists, though in fact only a few qualified as true targets of his speech.

Basescu was unhappy; not so much with the journalists always critical of him, but with those supporting him during the electoral campaign two years ago, and now turning against him, as he saw it.

According to Basescu, his prior supporters’ change of heart came about when he shunned their attempts to turn into his informal political advisers.

Who exactly are the fundamentalists in the Romanian media who supported Basescu is less relevant to the public.

But it is relevant to it Basescu’s thinking on what the ideal journalist looks like, now, when Romania is one step away from entering the European Union.

Basescu’s ideal journalist looks like Traian Ungureanu. Hell, it is Ungureanu!

Formerly with the BBC, Ungureanu unabashedly engaged in praising Basescu, beyond the limits of good journalism and even of good common sense.

During the electoral campaign Ungureanu even arrived at calling Basescu, Traian the Great. After Basescu took office and started to make blunder after blunder, Ungureanu still saw and heard no evil.

I do not take issue with Ungureanu: it is his right as a free man and professional in this country to conduct as he wants.

But I take issue with the worrisome appetite Basescu displayed for a media that would applaud him day in and day out.

This is nothing new to Romanians: others wanted the same during their history. Only their names were King Carol II and Nicolae Ceausescu.

Translated by Anca Paduraru