The printed media in the 20th century has
\ngone through a number of phases of development, from being independent to
\ncensored or fully banned. The most serious cases infringing on freedom of the
\nmedia but also human rights, occurred over 1945-1989, during the communist
\nregime. After 1945, after having enjoyed the fresh air of freedom for a few
\nyears after the censorship introduced by the fascist regime, the new communist
\nauthorities reintroduced censorship with much harsher provisions. During this
\ntime as well, however, there were those journalists that tried to do their job
\nas best as they could, based on the principles underlying media institutions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dorel Dorian worked as a journalist at the end of
\nWWII, and wrote for nearly all types of newspapers and magazines. In 1997, he
\ntold the Center for Oral History about the importance of newspapers in his
\nparents’ house. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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I was fascinated by the press long before I got to
\nlearn this trade. Newspapers were sacred to my family and I. I had no idea how
\nthey were written. My father had told me I shouldn’t believe what the
\nnewspapers wrote, because, even though you learn to read between the lines, and
\ndespite journalists’ best intentions, truth will out. It was a calling, the
\nwritten word was holy to me, I was confident I needed to look the word that
\ntold the truth. I was young, It was a time of great spiritual upheaval,
\nalthough I made some mistakes, as I later discovered. It was an investment, a sacred
\ninvestment in some ideals that I deemed to be the ultimate purpose: social
\njustice, freedom and moral fiber, an acknowledgement of individual value. I
\nbelieved in all these things, I do even today, although for a long time the
\npath I chose turned out not the best right for me. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Young Dorian started writing at the age of 16, in
\n1945. Yet he soon noticed he was faced with choosing between his passion and
\ndaily reality. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the summer of ’48, a whole string of events made
\nhe decided to study engineering. I doubted I could make a living out of
\nwriting, and I had a family to take care of. I was also good at math, at
\nabstract things. So I enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute, the Energy
\nFaculty, and I graduated in ’53. I continued writing for the press all this
\ntime. During the ’53 Festival in Bucharest, I was one of the most sought-after
\njournalists – I wrote stories, notes and reports. Right after graduation I
\nmoved to Jiu Valley and was appointed head of the technical and electric
\ndepartment at one of Romania’s first thermal power plants. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After the invasion of Hungary in 1956, Dorian noticed
\na change in the media: from the revolutionary momentum after the war, the media
\nstarted to lose its voice, the Student
\nLife magazine being just an example. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I saw the media had started to turn dull. Many
\narticles were written as if commissioned, there was direct and obvious
\npolitical involvement. And we understood they were trying something else after
\n’56, because students started to react. I must admit this was short-lived.
\nAfter the second issue came out, there was a huge public scandal revolving the Student Life magazine. It was a serious
\nissue that was discussed in the Central Committee by Ceau\u0219escu himself, in a meeting also attended by Leonte R\u0103utu and Petre Gheorghe. We
\nwere all called to say what we were after, what our life
\nplans were, how we ended up doing what we were doing, and if we considered
\nourselves part of an Enlightened Movement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dorian therefore chose to switch to technical
\njournalism. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ion Iliescu, who was now the secretary of the party’s
\nCentral Committee, asked me what the authorities could do to appeal to the
\nyoung generations again, over which the regime was starting to lose its
\ninfluence. I told him very honestly that I was thinking about a magazine for
\nconstruction amateurs, something to give them a hobby. So this is how the Tehnium magazine came into being. After
\nthree years of working for Science and
\nTechnology and Tehnium, the magazines
\nwere doing really well. The chairman of the Academy, Dr\u0103g\u0103nescu, asked me to
\nswitch to a scientific magazine with a wider reach and a more professional
\napproach. At the time he was running the Free
\nRomania newspaper, which also had a magazine issue. I said yes. I also
\ncontributed to other publications, such as the Woman magazine. I was called Dorina Petcu at the time, and would
\ntake care of the fan mail. Our readers wanted to meet Dorina Petcu, but this
\nmeeting was out of the question. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In 1989, the Romanian media underwent a new phase with
\nthe changing times. It was a landmark that diversified the media landscape.
\n(VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The printed media suffered greatly at the hands of communist censorship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":92209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[42928,42541,42926,42927,42925],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-131468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-1945-1989","tag-censorship","tag-dorel-dorian","tag-newspapers-and-magazines","tag-printed-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n