Mass-media and democracy in Romania

• Author: Mircea Botei
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 127-132

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 10 (59) No. 1 - 2017

MASS-MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY IN

ROMANIA

Mircea BOTEI1

Abstract: Mass-media has an important role in the functioning of a

democratic state. It informs the citizens, it assures the space for public

debates and educates the public in the spirit of democratic values. There are

situations when the press skids from this role, when it becomes an instrument

of propaganda, misinformation and manipulation or when, by over

mediatisation and by spectacular treatment it changes the character and the

sense of the public debate. Some specialists consider that these situations

lead to the damage of the principles and of the mechanisms of the democratic

life. For others, though, the media revolution brings benefits to democracy,

the never seen before rise number of participants in the process of taking

decisions.

Key words: mass-media, media revolution, democracy, public space

powerful publicized, citizen.

The role of mass-media in the democratic life manifests itself daily, as a natural fact,

without noise. This represents an action made for the consolidation of the law state and

for the defence of the democratic values, for the benefit of all citizens. An action that has

as principle informing the people, for them to understand what happens around them and

to take the best decisions for their faith and for the community in which they live. Hence,

the free affirmation that a democracy without a healthy and professional press cannot

exist! But there are situations, not many, in which the media, not only from Romania, but

from all the states with democratic regime, skids from its mission, starting to make more

propaganda than information, renouncing to impartiality and turning into the partisan of

some politic interests and games. And where can they be seen, these skids of the press,

then in the moments of social convulsion, when the camps start a dispute, without any

reservation, all their arsenal of arguments, but also of accusations and threatening, and

when the public debate takes powerful accents. Such events, with a big social and

emotional load were last years’ “Colectiv” tragedy and the public protests in the Capital

and in the big cities, from the beginning of this year, against the two ordinances of justice

urgency, one for pardoning the other and for the change of the penal Code. Then, the

media chose to participate in the public debate, taking the side of one or of the other of

the politic actors, misinforming and manipulating the masses, becoming a powerful

pressure factor over the governments. So big was the mass-media’s power of influence,

that, because of the fear of the public opinion, Ponta government fell (fact that created

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, mbotei@yahoo.com