Nevertheless, four years ago, it was the danger that the biggest TV groups would be under the power of PSD:

TVR is the state-owned TV, therefore doing whatever the government wants, PROTV had huge debts and they were doing what the government wanted, to convince them to get a reschedule of the payments, Antena 1 was Voiculescu’s, who was an ally of the PSD and (IIRC) B1TV received some governmental money via some obscure ways.

This is why the 2004 anti-PSD vote was a good idea.

@ Romer!canWell, yesterday I was out to protest (today I had to go to work) and from where I was situated I couldn’t really pay attention to what has happened to the camera-people. There were cases of reporters having clashes with the police, but in general I think the focus is at the roots – simply the TV channels didn’t send people for live broadcasting, which made the police’s obligations a bit lighter.

The truth is the guys at the other end of the barriere a scared (the politicians I mean) and their support staff (obviously some media and the police) is doing what they are supposed to.

I can’t say it was a big protest and we are all sorry it had to lead to aggression (that was absolutely out of the plan). Still… we’ll see what happens.

On that site I mentioned, there are around 5000-6000 people protesting at any moment (some from work, some not in Sofia, some – not phisically able to protest offline). We actually created that site for about 30 hours prior the protests and this is the reason it looks so edgy (((: To be honest it was a brilliant experiment – a lot of the users are sharing really constructive ideas about what to do next [with the country, with the people, with the elections, with the ways we take a stand]

For Romanian media, you can bet there remain strong political bedfellows (moreso than the already strong relations alleged elsewhere in Europe or North America). For just one example, the founder and leader of Partidul Conservator owns “newspapers Jurnalul Naţional and Gazeta Sporturilor and the TV stations Antena 1, Antena 2, Antena 3, Euforia Lifestyle TV, Antena Internaţional, GSP TV, GSP TV 2, GSP TV 3 and GSP TV 4.”

With a USD$400,000,000 war chest, self-confessions of repeated involvement in the Communist Party intelligence services, allegations and documentation as achieving rank of General within the SRI, and all these media weapons magically falling under his control, this one single man should convince you there is indeed a potential for blackout in Romania under the right circumstances.

In Bulgaria’s case, I got independent confirmation that TV channels were not reporting live news about the event at all. Unlike yesterday when everyone covered it. There’s no reason to believe anyone who might claim TV news would voluntarily consider major political demonstrations to be non-newsworthy. Particularly after a police crackdown.

Based on the information I have, it obviously looks exactly like major media outlets complied with government requests to not broadcast or even document events. denitza tells us that when a couple news cameras did show up, they were thwarted by police. Could be the same situation would happen in Romania. I don’t see any tough journalists or investigative reports in Romanian TV. Maybe someone else knows one and can point them out to me. As I recall, there was one single newspaper out of Brasov that kept a reputation for quality journalism.

Dunno, maybe it would just end up propaganda-fodder, anyway.

Either way, much love to our Bulgarian brothers and sisters for taking matters into their own hands.

I look forward to any future revelations about whom ordered it, which media executives were responsible for complicity in enforcing the orders, and which particular journalist abandoned their professional duty by doing what they were told instead of covering the damn news.

Please update us all if there are more details or information about police attacks on cameras.

I’m sure you’re aware a blackout often indicates impending violence. If so, I hope you’ve got students with camcorders and video phones strategically placed on the street, in buildings, and on rooftops to capture the footage for the world.

Good luck in beautiful Sofia, easily one of my favorite cities. We’re proud of you for standing up!

You could add to your post the sad fact that NOT ONE NATIONAL television dared to broadcast live what happened there – and the reason is a public secret. There were two channels, who are local who were broadcasting, untill ofcourse their reporters had some camera-police-clashes.