Adevarul
Encyclopedia
Adevărul is a Romania
n daily newspaper, based in Bucharest
. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom
's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic
position, advocating land reform
and universal suffrage
. Under its successive editors Alexandru Beldiman and Constantin Mille
, it became noted for its virulent criticism of King
Carol I
. This stance developed into a republican
and socialist
agenda, which made Adevărul clash with the Kingdom's authorities on several occasions. As innovative publications which set up several local and international records during the early 20th century, Adevărul and its sister daily Dimineaţa competed for the top position with the right-wing Universul
before and throughout the interwar period
. In 1920, Adevărul also began publishing its prestigious cultural supplement, Adevărul Literar şi Artistic. By the 1930s, their anti-fascism
and the Jewish
ethnicity of their new owners made Adevărul and Dimineaţa the targets of negative campaigns in the far right
press, and the antisemitic Octavian Goga
cabinet banned them down upon obtaining power in 1937. Adevărul was revived by Barbu Brănişteanu after World War II
, but was targeted by Communist Romania
's censorship apparatus
and again closed down in 1951.
A newspaper of the same name was set up in 1989, just days after the Romanian Revolution
, replacing Scînteia
, organ of the defunct Romanian Communist Party
. Initially a supporter of the dominant National Salvation Front, it adopted a controversial position, being much criticized for producing populist
and radical nationalist
messages and for supporting the violent Mineriad
of 1990. Under editors Dumitru Tinu and Cristian Tudor Popescu
, when it reasserted its independence as a socially conservative
venue and was fully privatized
, Adevărul became one of the most popular and trusted press venues. It nevertheless remained involved in scandals over alleged or confirmed political and commercial dealings, culminating in a 2005 conflict which saw the departure of Popescu, Bogdan Chireac and other panelists and the creation of rival newspaper Gândul
. As of 2006, Adevărul is the property of Dinu Patriciu
, a prominent Romanian businessman and politician.
of Adevărul Holding
, a company owned by Patriciu. The main newspaper itself is edited by editorial director Laurenţiu Ciocăzanu and a team comprising editor-in-chief Grigore Cartianu and several deputy editors (Ion M. Ioniţă, Ovidiu Nahoi, Andrei Velea and others). Also part of the holding are the cultural magazine Dilema Veche
, the tabloid Click!, the international policy magazine Foreign Policy Romania, the Romanian edition of Forbes
magazine, the satirical journal Caţavencii, and Blik, a Ukrainian
tabloid. In December 2010, Adevărul Holding also launched a sister version of its title asset, published in neighboring Moldova
as Adevărul Moldova.
The Romanian newspaper has special pages of regional content, one each for Bucharest
, Transylvania
, Moldavia
, the western areas of Banat
and Crişana
, and the southern areas of Wallachia
and Northern Dobruja
. It also hosts columns about the larger sections of Romanian diaspora
in Europe, those in Spain
and Italy
. Adevărul publishes several supplements. In addition to Adevărul Literar şi Artistic (formerly a separate magazine, now issued as a culture supplement which is issued on Wednesdays), it publishes five others: on Mondays, the sports magazine Antifotbal ("Anti-football"), which focuses on the traditionally less-covered areas of the Romanian sports scene
; on Tuesdays, Adevărul Expert Imobiliar ("Real Estate
Expert"); on Thursdays, Adevărul Sănătate ("Health"), a health and lifestyle magazine; on Fridays, a TV guide, Adevărul Ghid TV, followed on Sundays by the entertainment section Magazin de Duminică ("Sunday Magazine"). In October 2008, Adevărul also launched Adevărul de Seară ("Evening Adevărul"), a free daily newspaper
and evening edition, which was closed down in May 2011.
As of 2008, the newspaper publishes Colecţia Adevărul, a collection of classic and popular works in world and Romanian literature
. These are issued as additional supplements, and sold as such with the newspaper's Thursday editions.
A newspaper by the name Adevĕrulŭ ' onMouseout='HidePop("51564")' href="/topics/Romanian_alphabet">Romanian alphabet
which emphasized etymology
, in this case from the Latin
word veritas
) was originally founded on December 15, 1871. The weekly was owned by Alexandru Beldiman, a former Police
commander, and published in Iaşi
, the former capital of Moldavia
. Beldiman directed the newspaper in opposition to Romania's new Domnitor
, the German
prince Carol of Hohenzollern
, calling for the restoration of his deposed and exiled predecessor, the Moldavian-born Alexander John Cuza
. Its articles against the new monarch soon after resulted in Beldiman's indictment for defamation and attack on the 1866 Constitution
. He was eventually acquitted
, but the journal ceased publication with its 13th issue (April 1872).
Adevărul reemerged as a daily on August 15, 1888, seven years after the proclamation of a Romanian Kingdom
. It was then known as Adevĕrul, which also reflected the veritas origin, and the ĕ, although obsolete by the early 20th century, was kept as a distinctive sign by all the paper's owners until 1951. Initially financed by a printer, who agreed to advance it a short-term credit, the new gazette was co-founded by Alexandru Beldiman and Alexandru Al. Ioan
, the son of former Domnitor Cuza, and was again noted for its radical and often irreverent critique of newly-crowned King
Carol and the "foreign dynasty". The small editorial team included writer Grigore Ventura and his son Constantin, as well as, after a while, political columnist I. Hussar. In December 1888, it changed its format, from a No. 6 to a No. 10 in paper size
, while abandoning the initial, calligraphed logo, in favor of a standard serif
which it used until 1951.
Beldiman's hostility to the monarchy was reflected in one of the 15 objectives set by the second series' first issue, whereby Adevărul called for an elective monarchy
with magistratures reserved for locals, and evident in having chosen for the paper's motto
a quote from poet Vasile Alecsandri
, which read: Să te feresci, Române!, de cuiŭ strein în casă ("Romanians, beware of foreign nails in your house", an allusion to Carol's German origin). The journalists called Carol's accession to the throne by the 1866 plebiscite "an undignified comedy", refused to capitalize
references to M. S. Regele ("H[is] M[ajesty] the King"), and referred to May 10, the national celebration of the Kingdom, as a "national day of mourning
". In December 1888, they also published a list of Carol's alleged attacks on Romanian dignity. According to one account, after the newspaper's first May 10 issue came out in 1889, Police forces bought copies which they later set on fire. Reportedly, its circulation peaked on May 10 of each year, from some 5,000 to some 25,000 or 30,000 copies. Adevărul also debated with the German newspapers Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and Kölnische Zeitung, who worried that Romania's anti-dynasticists plotted Carol's murder, assuring them that the actual battle was political, "in broad daylight, on the wide path of public opinion." In 1891, the paper called for boycotting Carol's 25th anniversary on the throne.
, the new Adevărul had its original headquarters in Calea Victoriei
(Doamnei Street, Nouă Street, Brătianu Boulevard and Enei Street). It later moved to a building near the National Bank and the Vilacrosse Passage
, where it occupied just several rooms (leading its staff to repeatedly complain about the lack of space). A serious crisis occurred during 1892, when, having omitted to register his trademark
, Beldiman was confronted with the appearance of a competing Adevărul, published by his former associate Toma Basilescu, who had been the original gazette's administrator for the previous year. In June 1892, an arbitral tribunal
decided in favor of Beldiman, ordering Basilescu to close down his paper.
With time, the newspaper had moved from advocating King Carol's replacement with a local ruler to supporting republicanism
. In 1893, as part of its extended campaign, during which it gathered letters of protest from its readers, Adevărul obtained the cancellation of plans for a public subscription to celebrate the engagement of Crown Prince Ferdinand
to Marie of Edinburgh
. In addition, Adevărul began militating for a number of major social and political causes, which it perceived as essential to democracy
. In its 15 points of 1888, it notably demanded universal suffrage
to replace the census method enshrined in the 1866 Constitution
, unicameralism
through a disestablishment of the Senate
, a land reform
to replace leasehold estate
s, self-governance
at a local level, progressive tax
ation, Sunday rest for employees, universal conscription
instead of a permanent under arms
force, women's rights
, emancipation
for Romanian Jews
. It embraced the cause of Romanians
living outside the Old Kingdom
, particularly those in Austro–Hungarian-ruled Transylvania
, while calling for Romania to separate itself from its commitment to the Triple Alliance
, and advocating a Balkan Federation
to include Romania.
Adevărul also took an active interest in the problems facing Romania's rural population: while calling for a land reform, it expressed condemnation of the failing sanitary system, which it blamed for the frequency of countryside epidemics, and for the administrative system, which it accused of corruption
. It depicted revolt as legitimate, and campaigned in favor of amnesty
for prisoners taken after the 1888 peasant riots. The paper supported educational reforms
in the countryside, calling attention to the specific issues faced by rural teachers, but also campaigned against their use of corporal punishment
as a method of maintaining school discipline
. In similar vein, Adevărul focused on cases of abuse within the Romanian Army, documenting cases where soldiers were being illegally used as indentured servant
s, noting the unsanitary conditions which accounted for an unusually high rate of severe conjunctivitis
, and condemning officers for regularly beating their subordinates. As part of the latter campaign, it focused on Crown Prince Ferdinand, who was tasked with instructing a battalion
and is said to have slapped a soldier for not performing the proper moves. Adevărul investigated numerous other excesses of authority, and on several occasions formed special investigative commissions of reporters who followed suspicions of judicial error. It also spoke out in favor of Jewish emancipation, while theorizing a difference between the minority "exploiting Jews" and an assimilable Jewish majority.
Under Beldiman, the newspaper took pride in stating its independence, by taking distance from the two dominant parties
, the Conservatives and the National Liberal Party
, who either supported or tolerated King Carol. This stance reputedly earned the publication an unusual status: anecdotes have it that Conservative leader Lascăr Catargiu
would only read Adevărul while in the opposition, and that its columnist Albert Honigman was the first and for long time only journalist allowed into the upper-class society at Casa Capşa
restaurant. In February 1889, the Conservative Premier
Theodor Rosetti
reputedly tried to silence Adevărul by having its distributors arrested. In 1892, Adevărul became the first local newspaper to feature a cartoonist section, which hosted caricatures of the period's potentates, and its rebelliousness allegedly frightened the Romanian zincographers
to the point where the plates had to be created abroad. In April 1893, the Catargiu cabinet organized a clampdown on the newspaper: it arrested its editor Eduard Dioghenide (who was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of sedition
) and, profiting from the non-emancipated status of Romanian Jews, it expelled its Jewish contributors I. Hussar and Carol Schulder. Another incident occurred during May of the following year, when the paper's headquarters were attacked by rioting University of Bucharest
students, who were reportedly outraged by an article critical of their behavior, but also believed to have been instigated by the Conservative executive's Gendarmerie
.
In parallel, Adevărul took steps to establishing its reputation as a newspaper of record
. A local first was established in June 1894, when Adevărul hosted the first foreign correspondence article received by a Romanian periodical: a telegram sent by the French
socialist
newspaperman Victor Jaclard
, discussing the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot
and the accession of Jean Casimir-Perier
to the office of President. Adevărul also broke ground by publishing a plate portrait of Casimir-Perier only a day after his rise to prominence. Early on, the newspaper also had a cultural agenda, striving to promote Romanian literature
for the general public and following a method outlined by a 1913 article: "In his free time [...], the reader, having satisfied his curiosity about the daily events, finds entertainment for the soul in the newspaper's literary column. People who would not spend a dime on literary works, will nevertheless read literature once this is made available to them, in a newspaper they bought for the information it provides." Initially, Adevărul dedicated its Sunday issue to literary contributions, receiving such pieces from George Coşbuc
, Haralamb Lecca, Ioan N. Roman, and the adolescent poet Ştefan Octavian Iosif
.
By 1893, the gazette's panel came to include several leading activists of the newly-created Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR), among them Constantin Mille
and brothers Anton and Ioan Bacalbaşa. In 1895, Mille purchased the newspaper, but, even though the Alecsandri motto was removed a short while after, Beldiman maintained editorial control until his death three years later, explaining that he was doing so in order to maintain an independent line. Mille was an innovator, seen by his contemporaries as a "father of modern Romanian journalism" (a title carved on his tombstone in Bellu cemetery). The purchase was received with consternation by many PSDMR members, particularly since Adevărul competed with its official platforms (Munca and, after 1894, Lumea Nouă
). In late 1893, Adevărul was also publishing articles by an unsigned author, who may have been Constantin Stere
(later known as the figure behind the Poporanist
ideology) ridiculing Munca for having featured elitist
content. Eventually, the party expelled Mille on grounds of having betrayed socialism. In parallel, allegedly upset that Beldiman had chosen Mille's offer over his own, Anton Bacalbaşa quit Adevărul, becoming one of his former colleague's most vocal critics.
In 1904, the board created Adevĕrul S. A., the first in a series of joint stock companies
meant to insure its control of commercial rights. In 1898, after Mille invested its profits into real estate
, Adevărul left its crowded surroundings and moved to a specially-designed new building on Sărindar Street (the present-day Constantin Mille Street, between Calea Victoriei and the Cişmigiu Gardens
). Based on the example set in France by Le Figaro
, the palatial headquarters was the first building of such proportions in the history of Romania's printed press, housing a printing press, paper storage, distribution office and mail room, as well as a library, several archives, a phone station and a Romanian Orthodox
chapel
. Its halls were luxuriously decorated according to Mille's specifications, and adorned with poster
s by international artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
and Alfons Mucha
, and by its occasional illustrator, Nicolae Vermont
. Around 1900, Mille purchased a neighboring plot, the former Saint-Frères manufacturing plant, and unified both buildings under a single facade. It was there that, after placing an order with the Mergenthaler Company, he installed the first Linotype machine
s to be used locally.
Adevărul established itself as the most circulated paper, setting up successive records in terms of copies per issue due to Mille's favorable approach to modern printing techniques: from 10,000 in 1894, these brought the circulation to 12,000 in 1895 and 30,000 in 1907. Writing in 1898, Mille took pride in calling his newspaper "a daily encyclopedia" or "cinema" for the regular public, universally available at only 5 bani
per copy. In 1904, making efforts to keep up with his rival Luigi Cazzavillan, founder of the right-wing competitor Universul
, Mille established a morning edition, which was emancipated under separate management in December of the same year, under the new name Dimineaţa (in 1912, the latter would become known as the first local daily to use full color print
, with a claim to have been the world's first such newspaper). Beginning 1905, both gazettes ensured stable revenues by leasing their classified advertising
sections to Carol Schulder's Schulder Agency.
, Arthur Gorovei
, Ion Gorun, Henric and Simion Sanielevici. In this context, Adevărul also began receiving contributions from prominent humorist Ion Luca Caragiale
—previously a conservative adversary, known for his mockery of republican sensationalism
. In return for the 1897 setback, the gazette began allocating space to serialized works of literature, including sketches
by Caragiale (most of the writings later published as Momente şi schiţe), as well as The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas, père
.
In later years, Adevărul experimented by publishing a different supplement each day, including one titled Litere şi Arte ("Arts and Letters"). By the mid 1890s, Adevărul was encouraging developments in visual arts in Romania
, publishing several original posters, and hosting art chronicles signed with various pseudonyms. In 1895, it covered the artistic environment's split into several competing wings: its columnist, using the pseudonym Index, gave a negative review to Nicolae Grigorescu
and the other Impressionists
or Realists
who together had rebelled against the official academic salon
of C. I. Stăncescu. The following year however, a chronicler who used the pen name Gal praised the anti-academic independents' salon, supporting its members Ştefan Luchian
, Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
and Nicolae Vermont
(whose portraits it featured as illustrations for the texts, alongside a notorious caricature of C. I. Stăncescu by Nicolae Petrescu-Găină).
By 1905, Adevărul was publishing a supplement titled Viaţa Literară ("The Literary Life", edited by Coşbuc, Gorun and Ilarie Chendi) and two other satirical periodicals, Belgia Orientului ("The Orient's Belgium
", named after a common sarcastic reference to the Romanian Kingdom) and Nea Ghiţă ("Uncle Ghiţă"). It also began running its own publishing house, Editura Adevĕrul, noted early on for its editions of Constantin Mille's novels, Caragiale's sketches, and George Panu's memoirs of his time with the literary club Junimea
. In parallel, Mille reached out into other areas of local culture
. Early on, he instituted a tradition of monthly festivities, paid for from his own pocket, and noted for the participation of leading figures in Romanian theater (Maria Giurgea, Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu among them). Beginning 1905, the paper had for its illustrator Iosif Iser
, one of the major graphic artists of his generation, whose satirical drawings most often targeted Carol I and Russian
Emperor Nicholas II
(attacked for violently suppressing the 1905 Revolution
). As a promotional tactic, Adevărul participated in the National Fair of 1906, where it exemplified its printing techniques while putting out a collector's version of the newspaper, titled Adevĕrul la Expoziţie ("Adevĕrul at the Exhibit").
Stephen the Great
, and the erection in Craiova
of a bust honoring its deceased contributor, poet Traian Demetrescu. At around the same time, Mille's gazette became a noted supporter of feminism
, and created a special column, Cronica femeii ("The Woman's Chronicle"), assigned to female journalist Ecaterina Raicoviceanu-Fulmen. Over the following decade, it hosted regular contributions by other militant women, among them Lucrezzia Karnabatt, E. Marghita, Maura Prigor, Laura Vampa and Aida Vrioni. Having endorsed the creation of a journalists' trade union
and a Romanian Writers' Society, the newspaper also claimed to have inspired the idea of a Bucharest ambulance service
, a project taken up by physician Nicolae Minovici and fulfilled in 1906. Despite his leftist sympathies, Mille found himself in conflict with Romania's labor movement: believing that the Linotype machines would render their jobs obsolete, they went on strike
, before the editor himself resolved to educate them all in the new techniques.
Adevăruls ongoing support for Jewish emancipation was accompanied by a sympathetic take on the growing Zionist
movement. In 1902, the paper offered an enthusiastic reception to visiting French Zionist Bernard Lazare
, prompting negative comments from the antisemitic French observers. By 1906, Adevăruls attitude prompted historian Nicolae Iorga
, leader of the antisemitic Democratic Nationalist Party, to accuse the newspaper of cultivating a "Jewish national sentiment" which, he claimed, had for its actual goal the destruction of Romania. In his Naţionalism sau democraţie ("Nationalism or Democracy") series of articles for Sămănătorul
magazine (an ethno-nationalist
organ published by Iorga), the Transylvanian-based thinker Aurel Popovici
, who criticized the elites of Austria–Hungary on grounds that they were serving Jewish interests, alleged that the impact of Adevărul and Dimineaţa carried the same risk for Romania. In later years, Iorga casually referred to Adevărul as "the Jewish press organ", while, together with his political associate A. C. Cuza
and other contributors to his Neamul Românesc journal, he repeatedly claimed that the entire press was controlled by the Jews. The antisemitic discourse targeting the Sărindar-based publications was taken up in the same period by the traditionalist Transylvanian poet Octavian Goga
and by businessman-journalist Stelian Popescu
(who, in 1915, became owner of Universul).
Pursuing its interest in the peasant question, Adevărul was one of the main factors of dissent during the 1907 Peasant Revolt
, which was violently quelled by the National Liberal cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza
. The paper reported on or made allegations about the shooting and maltreatment of peasants, reputedly to the point where government officials promised to end repression if Mille agreed to tone down his publication. Various researchers accuse Mille of having seriously exaggerated the scale of repression for political purposes. Historian Anton Caragea, who theorizes the intrusion of Austria–Hungary, argues that, having received payments from Austro–Hungarian spies, both Adevărul and Universul were conditioned to incite public sentiment against the Sturdza executive. Soon after the revolt, Editura Adevĕrul published Caragiale's 1907, din primăvară până în toamnă ("1907, From Spring to Autumn"), an attack on the Kingdom's institutions and analysis of its failures in connection to the rebellion, which was an instant best-seller.
and socialist journalist N. D. Cocea
, as well as Romanian anarchist
milieus. In 1912, it participated in one of Cocea's publicity stunts, during which the Facla editor, together with his colleague, poet Tudor Arghezi
, simulated their own trial for lèse majesté
, by reporting the mock procedures and hosting advertisements for Facla. Like Facla itself, Adevărul circulated stereotypical satires of Carol I, constantly referring to him as neamţul ("the German" in colloquial terms) or căpuşa ("the tick"). In parallel, Adevărul resumed its cultural and social campaigning. By 1908, it was taking an interest in the emerging European avant-garde
, but was reserved toward its most radical representative, Futurism
, while deploring the end of literary realism
.
In 1912, the combined circulation of Adevărul and Dimineaţa exceeded 100,000 copies, bringing it a revenue of 1 million lei
; the two periodicals assessed that, between January and August 1914, they had printed some 1,284 ton
s of paper. Adevărul had become the highest-grossing, but also the highest-paying press venue, and consequently the most sought-after employer: in 1913, it had a writing and technical staff of 250 people (whose salaries amounted to some 540,000 lei), in addition to whom it employed 60 correspondents and 1,800 official distributors. Adevărul reportedly had a notoriously stiff editorial policy, outlined by Mille and applied by his administrative editor Sache Petreanu, whereby it taxed the proofreaders
for each typo. Mille himself repeatedly urged his employees to keep up with the events, notably by decking the walls with portraits of a 19th-century manager, Zaharia Carcalechi, a negative example for his habit of printing his gazettes at highly irregular intervals. In addition to establishing permanent telephone links within Austria–Hungary (in both Vienna
and Budapest
), Adevărul maintained a regular correspondence with various Balkan
capitals, and pioneered shorthand
in transcribing interviews. Among its indigenous journalists to be sent on special assignment abroad were Emil Fagure and Barbu Brănişteanu, who reported on the 1908 Young Turk Revolution
from inside the Ottoman Empire
, as well as from the Principality of Bulgaria
and the Kingdom of Serbia
. The newspaper was nevertheless subject to a practical joke
played by its correspondent, future writer Victor Eftimiu
: instead of continuing his Adevărul-sponsored trip to France, Eftimiu stopped in Vienna, and compiled his "Letters from Paris
" column from the press articles he read at Café Arkaden.
The efforts made for establishing and preserving international connections, the newspaper itself later claimed, meant that it was among the first in the world to report several European events: the 1911 food riots in Vienna, the outbreak of the First Balkan War
, and the diplomatic conflict between the Greek
and Bulgarian Kingdoms in the run-up to the Second Balkan War
. During the latter showdowns, Adevărul also employed several literary and political personalities as its correspondents: the paper's future manager Iacob Rosenthal in Sofia
, Serbian journalist Pera Taletov in Belgrade
, Romanian writer Argentina Monteoru in Istanbul
, and Prince Albert Gjika in Cetinje
. In July 1913, the newspaper reported extensively on massacres committed by the Hellenic Army
in Dojran
, Kilkis
and other settlements of Macedonia
, while discussing the "terror regime" instituted in Bulgaria by Tsar Ferdinand I
. Later the same month, as Romania joined the anti-Bulgarian coalition and her troops entered Southern Dobruja
, Adevărul gave coverage to the spread of cholera
among soldiers, accusing the Conservative executive headed by Titu Maiorescu
of hiding its actual toll.
Also at that stage, the newspaper had become known for organizing raffle
s, which provided winners with expensive prizes, such as real estate and furniture. It was also the first periodical to have established itself in the countryside, a record secured through a special contract with the Romanian Post, whereby postmen acted as press distributors, allowing some 300 press storage rooms to be established nationally. Political differences of the period, pitting Adevărul editors against National Liberal politicos, threatened this monopoly: under National Liberal cabinets, the Post was prevented from distributing the newspaper, leading it to rely on subscriptions and private distributors. Famous among the latter were Bucharest paperboy
s, who advertised Adevărul with political songs such as the republican anthem La Marseillaise
.
After the outbreak of World War I
, the newspaper further divided the surviving socialist camp by swinging into the interventionist
group, calling for a declaration of war against the Central Powers
. This position was more compatible with that of newspapers like Universul
, Flacăra
, Furnica or Epoca, clashing with the socialist press, the Poporanists
, and Germanophile
gazettes such as Seara
, Steagul, Minerva or Opinia. According to historian Lucian Boia
, this stance was partly explained by the Jewish origin of its panelists, who, as advocates of assimilation, wanted to identify with the Romanian cultural nationalism
and irredenta; an exception was the Germanophile Brănişteanu, for a while marginalized within the group.
Adevărul agitated with energy against Austria–Hungary on the Transylvanian issue, while giving less exposure to the problems of Romanians in Russian-held Bessarabia
. This was a programatic choice, outlined by Transylvanian academic Ioan Ursu in a September 1914 article for Adevărul, where Russophobia
was condemned as a canard. Over the course of 1914, the aging historian A. D. Xenopol also made Adevărul the host of his interventionist essays, later collected as a volume. In early winter 1915, Adevărul publicized the visit of British
scholar Robert William Seton-Watson
, who campaigned in favor of the Entente Powers
and supported the interventionist Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians. In his interview with Adevărul, Seton-Watson identified the goals of Romanians with those of Serbs
and Croats
, stressing that their common interest called for the partition of Austria–Hungary, ending what he called "the brutal and artificial domination of the Magyar race". One of the newspaper's own articles, published in April 1916, focused on the ethnic German Transylvanian Saxons
and their relationship with Romanians in Austria–Hungary, claiming: "Except for the Hungarians, we had throughout our history, just as we have today, an enemy just as irreducible and who would desire our disappearance just as much: the Saxon people." According to literary historian Dumitru Hîncu, such discourse was replicated by other pro-Entente venues, marking a temporary break with a local tradition of more positive ethnic stereotype
s regarding the Germans.
The interventionist campaign peaked in summer 1916, when it became apparent that Ion I. C. Brătianu
's National Liberal cabinet was pondering Romania's entry into the conflict on the Entente side (see Romania during World War I). Mille himself explained the war as a "corrective" answer to Romania's social problems and a "diversion" for the rebellion-minded peasants. The newspaper, described by American
scholar Glenn E. Torrey as "sensationalist", provided enthusiastic accounts of the Russians' Brusilov Offensive
, which had stabilized the Eastern Front
in Romania's proximity, announcing that the "supreme moment" for Romania's intervention had arrived. This attitude resulted in a clash between Adevărul on one side and Romania's new dominant socialist faction, the Romanian Social Democratic Party
(PSDR) and the socialist-controlled labor movement on the other. The newspaper reported the official government position on the bloody confrontations between workers and Romanian Army troops in the city of Galaţi
. Using a style Torrey describes as "inflammatory", Adevărul also attacked PSDR leader Christian Rakovsky
, co-founder of the anti-interventionist and internationalist
Zimmerwald Movement
, accusing him of being an "adventurer" and hireling of the German Empire
. In a 1915 letter to Zimmerwald promoter Leon Trotsky
, Rakovsky himself claimed that Mille had been corrupted by Take Ionescu
, leader of the pro-Entente Conservative-Democratic Party, and that his newspapers issued propaganda
"under the mask of independence".
Romania eventually signed the 1916 Treaty of Bucharest, committing herself to the Entente cause. Its intervention in the war was nevertheless ill-fated, and resulted in the occupation of Bucharest and much of the surrounding regions by the Central Powers, with the Romanian authorities taking refuge in Iaşi
. While Mille himself fled to Iaşi and later Paris, his newspapers were banned by the German authorities and the Sărindar headquarters became home to the German-language
official mouthpiece, Bukarester Tageblatt. Brănişteanu, who did not join in the exodus, worked with Constantin Stere
on the Germanophile paper Lumina. In early 1919, as the Germans lost the war, Mille returned and both Adevărul and Dimineaţa were again in print. In later years, Adevăruls Constantin Costa-Foru
covered in detail and with noted clemency the trials of various "collaborationist
" journalists, including some of its former and future contributors (Stere, Tudor Arghezi
, Saniel Grossman). The newspaper was by then also reporting about Seton-Watson's disappointment with post-war Greater Romania
and the centralist
agenda of its founders.
Once reestablished, Adevărul became a dominant newspaper of the interwar period
and preserved its formative role for popular culture
, while being joined its niche by new widely-circulated and left-oriented venues (Cuvântul Liber
and Rampa among them). More serious competition came from its established rival Universul, which reportedly surpassed it in popularity. In 1920, Mille retired from the position of editor-in-chief and moved on to found Lupta journal, amidst allegations that he had been pressured out by business interests. Adevărul and Dimineaţa were both purchased by Aristide Blank, a Romanian Jewish
entrepreneur, National Liberal politician and owner of Editura Cultura Naţională company, who sold the controlling stock to other prominent Jewish businessmen, Emil and Simion Pauker, reactivating the Adevĕrul S. A. holding in the process. Mille himself was replaced by Constantin Graur, who held it until 1936. Simion and Emil Pauker were, respectively, the father and uncle of Marcel Pauker
, later a maverick figure in the outlawed Romanian Communist Party
(PCR), and their ethnicity made the two newspapers the preferred targets of attacks from among antisemitic groups. Later that decade, Adevărul was generally sympathetic to the National Peasants' Party
, the main political force opposing the National Liberal
establishment.
The paper hosted a new generation of panelists, most of whom were known for their advocacy of left-wing causes. In addition to professional journalists Brănişteanu, Constantin Bacalbaşa, Tudor Teodorescu-Branişte, they included respected novelist Mihail Sadoveanu
and debuting essayist Petre Pandrea, as well as the best-selling fiction author Cezar Petrescu
, who was briefly a member of the editorial staff. Other writers with socialist or pacifist
sympathies also became collaborators of Adevărul and Dimineaţa, most notably: Elena Farago, Eugen Relgis
, Ion Marin Sadoveanu
and George Mihail Zamfirescu. Despite the effects of the Great Depression
, the new management purchased another building in Sărindar area, tearing it down and replacing it with another palace wing, in reinforced concrete
, and unifying the three facades by late 1933. The extended location, covering some 1,700 m², came to house a rotary printing press
which was also in use by the magazine Realitatea Ilustrată, a conference hall, a cafeteria
and sleeping quarters for the janitor
s.
The post-1920 issues introduced a number of changes in format. It began hosting photojournalistic
pieces by Iosif Berman, one of Romania's celebrated photographers (who had made his debut with Dimineaţa in 1913). The paper began headlining its front page with short column grouping the most important news of the day, grouped together into a single paragraph and often accompanied by satirical comments. Among the other innovations were regular pieces discussing developments in literature and philosophy, written by two young modernist
authors, Benjamin Fondane
and Ion Vinea, as well as a regular theater chronicle, contributed by Fagure and Iosif Nădejde. Vinea's articles illustrated his theories about the need for authenticity, his eclecticism
, and his belief that novel was innately inferior to lyrical prose. Other articles showed his rivalry with his former co-editor of Simbolul
magazine, Tristan Tzara
, and his stated reserves toward Dada
, the radical avant-garde
current Tzara had helped establish in Switzerland
during the war. In 1922, Vinea participated in establishing Contimporanul
, an influential art magazine and socialist venue which had cordial relations with Adevărul. Also at the time, the newspaper had a printing contract with Alexandru Tzaran, a socialist activist and entrepreneur, whose company also published avant-garde books. Adevărul had also resumed its own projects of creating a separate literary venue, and, in 1920, had more success by setting up Adevĕrul Literar şi Artistic, which became one of the prominent cultural journals of its era. Seven years later, it also began printing a magazine for Romanian Radio enthusiasts, under the title Radio Adevĕrul.
The newspaper remained involved in cultural debates throughout the following two decades, attracting contributions from various cultural ideologists, among them critics Şerban Cioculescu
, Petru Comarnescu
, Eugen Lovinescu
and Paul Zarifopol, writers Demostene Botez, Eugeniu Botez
, Victor Eftimiu
, Eugen Jebeleanu
and Camil Petrescu
, and Aromanian
cultural activist Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
. Beginning 1928, Cioculescu took over the literary column. That same year, Adevărul hosted part of the dispute between Cioculescu and another prominent critic of the period, Perpessicius
, the former of whom accused the latter of being too eclectic and generous. In 1931, it circulated young critic Lucian Boz's defense of Tristan Tzara and praise sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi
, both of whom, he stressed, had brought "fresh Romanian air into the realm of Western culture
". By 1932, it was hosting contributions from George Călinescu
, including one which criticized his former disciple Boz, and excerpts from Lovinescu's memoirs. In 1937, novelist and chronicler Felix Aderca
contributed an article challenging Lovinescu for having ignored the work of avant-garde founding figure Urmuz
. The same year, Adevărul hosted a special column, probably though of by feminist writer Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan
(already known to Adevărul readers as a popularizer of English literature
), which hosted special contributions from women of note in both culture and society.
In parallel, Editura Adevĕrul published some of Romanian literature's best-sellers. These included works by some Romania's most acclaimed authors of the day, among them Sadoveanu, Călinescu, Eugeniu Botez, Liviu Rebreanu
, Gala Galaction
. In addition to these, it printed several other popular works, such as memoirs and essays by Queen Marie of Romania
, the successful Titanic Vals play by Tudor Muşatescu
, and, after 1934, a number of primary school textbooks. By the mid 1930s, Adevărul had launched sister magazines dedicated to photo-reportage (Realitatea Ilustrată), Hollywood films
(Film) and health (Medicul Nostru).
and fascist
segment of the political spectrum, at the time illustrated by the National-Christian Defense League
(LANC) of Adevăruls old adversary A. C. Cuza
. During 1921, the liberal Fagure ridiculed the supposed threat of a Jewish-led communization in newly-acquired Bessarabia
, countering officially-endorsed and Universul-circulated speculations about Jewish Bolshevism
. In 1923, Adevărul publishing house printed a booklet by the leftist figure Emil Socor, who exposed A. C. Cuza's recourse to plagiarism
. The same year, the LANC's entire paramilitary
wing, including its young leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
, were arrested by the authorities, who uncovered their plan to murder National Liberal politicians, the editors of Lupta and Adevărul manager Iacob Rosenthal. Adevărul later published the results of an investigation by anti-fascist
reporter Dinu Dumbravă, who assessed the LANC's implication in the 1925 pogrom
of Focşani
town, together with the clandestine spread of antisemitic theories through the educational system
; in 1927, it joined the condemnation of LANC violence in Transylvania, and hosted a piece by lawyer-activist Dem. I. Dobrescu in which Codreanu's men were referred to as "a shame" for Romania. In December 1930, leftist sociologist Mihai Ralea, one of the main figures in the Viaţa Românească
circle, chose Adevărul as the venue for his essay Răzbunarea noţiunii de democraţie ("Avenging the Notion of Democracy"), which condemned the then-popular theory that democratic regimes were inferior to totalitarian
ones. Adevărul reported with concern on conspiracies
against the legitimate government, including officer Victor Precup's attempt to assassinate King Carol II
on Good Friday
1934.
In parallel, Adevărul took an interest in promoting alternatives to nationalist theories. It thus attempted to mediate the ongoing disputes between Romania and Hungary
, an editorial policy was notably illustrated in 1923, when the exiled Hungarian thinker Oszkár Jászi
visited Bucharest. In that context, Adevărul published Jászi's interview with essayist Constantin Costa-Foru
, which discussed projects for a Danubian Confederation, while criticizing "thoughts of war and sentiments of hatred" expressed by representatives of both nations. Another Adevărul piece of the time, in which Jászi's ideals were commended as opposites of the Hungarian Regency
and the authoritarian
Miklós Horthy
regime, raised alarm among Hungarian officials, being mentioned in an official report by Hungarian Ambassador Iván Rubido-Zichy. Later, even as Jászi's arguments came to be viewed with suspicion by many Romanians and openly rejected by members of the Hungarian community in Romania
, Adevărul continued to express sympathy to the cause, notably with a 1935 essay by Transylvanian journalist Ion Clopoţel. The newspaper also denounced interwar Germany
's Anschluss
attempts (that is, the absorption of Austria
), primarily because they stood to channel Hungary's revanchism
, while reporting with sarcasm on the friendly contacts between the Romanian LANC and the revanchist Szeged Fascists
. Adevăruls critical scrutiny of Romanian nationalist policies in post-1920 Greater Romania
, primarily in Transylvania and Bessarabia, was notably present in articles contributed by Onisifor Ghibu
, a former activist for the Transylvanian Romanian cause.
One of the new causes in which Adevărul involved itself after 1918 was birth control
, which it supported from an eugenic
perspective. This advocacy was foremost illustrated by the regular medical column of 1923, signed Doctor Ygrec (the pseudonym of a Jewish practitioner), which proposed both prenuptial certificates and the legalization of abortion
. The issues attracted much interest after Ygrec and his counterpart at Universul, who expressed moral and social objections, debated the matter for an entire month. While voicing such concerns, Adevărul itself published prejudice
d claims, such as a 1928 article by physician George D. Ionăşescu, who portrayed the steady migration of Oltenia
n natives into Bucharest as a "social danger" which brought with it "promiscuity, squalor and infection", and called for restrictions on internal migration. Generally anti-racist
, the paper helped publicize the alternative, anti-fascist racialism
proposed by Henric Sanielevici in the 1930s. Adevărul also published a 1929 piece by Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, in which the latter showed his adversity to radical forms of feminism
, recommending women to find their comfort in marriage.
By the mid 1930s, the tension between Adevărul and the increasingly pro-fascist Universul degenerated into open confrontation. Emil Pauker's newspapers were by then also being targeted by the new fascist movement known as the Iron Guard
, led by former LANC member Codreanu: in 1930, one of its editors was shot by a follower of Codreanu, but escaped with his life. According to the recollections of PCR activist Silviu Brucan
, the Iron Guardists, who supported Universul, attacked distributors of Adevărul and Dimineaţa, prompting young communist and socialists to organize themselves into vigilante
groups and fight back, which in turn led to a series of street battles. Beginning 1935, the scandals also involved Sfarmă-Piatră
, a virulent far right newspaper headed by Nichifor Crainic
and funded by Stelian Popescu
, the new publisher of Universul. While engaged in this conflict, Adevărul stood out among local newspapers for supporting the PCR during a 1936 trial of its activists which took place in Craiova
, and involved as a co-defendant Simion Pauker's daughter-in-law, Ana Pauker
. According to a claim made by the mainstream politician Constantin Argetoianu
, which reported a confidential statement by an Adevărul journalist, this editorial line was exclusively owed to family relationships and imposed by Emil Pauker, who otherwise continued to manifest himself as an anti-communist
. Also that year, Batzaria left the Adevărul group and joined Universul, where he consequently displayed a degree of sympathy for the far right discourse.
In summer 1936, the Paukers sold their stock to a consortium of businessmen with National Liberal connections, which was headed by Emanoil Tătărescu, the brother of acting Premier
Gheorghe Tătărescu
. Mihail Sadoveanu succeeded Graur as editor-in-chief, while also taking over leadership of Dimineaţa, and Eugen Lovinescu became a member of the company's executive panel. With this change in management came a new stage in the conflict opposing Adevărul to the far right press. Through the voices of Crainic, Alexandru Gregorian and N. Crevedia, the two extremist journals Porunca Vremii and Sfarmă-Piatră, repeatedly targeted Sadoveanu with antisemitic and antimasonic
epithets, accusing him of having become a tool for Jewish interests and, as leader of the Romanian Freemasonry
, of promoting occult
practices. The controversy also involved modernist poet Tudor Arghezi
, whose writings Sadoveanu defended against charges of "pornography
" coming from the nationalist press. Adevărul did however back similar charges against young novelist Mircea Eliade
, who had a previous conflict with Teodorescu-Branişte, and whom Doctor Ygrec called "erotomania
c".
of Octavian Goga
, successor to the LANC and rival of the Iron Guard, took over government. This was primarily an antisemitic measure among several racial discrimination laws adopted with the consent of Carol II, the increasingly authoritarian
monarch, and officially credited the notion according to which both venues were "Jewish". The decision to close down the publications was accompanied by a nationalization
of their assets, which reportedly included a large part of Iosif Berman's negatives
. In one of the paper's last issues, Teodorescu-Branişte warned against the identification of democracy "within the limits of constitutional monarchy
" with Bolshevism
, which he argued had been a traditional tactic of the newspaper's adversaries. Writing in his diary during World War II
, Brănişteanu stated his opinion that the ban coincided with "the emergence of barbarity". This referred to the bloody competition between Carol and his Iron Guard rivals, to the Goga cabinet's downfall, and to the establishment of a three successive wartime dictatorships
: Carol II's National Renaissance Front
, the Iron Guard's National Legionary State
, and the authoritarian rule of Conducător
Ion Antonescu
.
During its episodic rise to power, the Iron Guard mapped out its revenge against people associated with Adevărul, dividing its former staff into three categories: "kikes", "traitors", and "minions". Nichifor Crainic, who served as Minister of Propaganda
under both the National Legionary State and Antonescu, took pride in his own campaign against "Judaism
" in the press, and, speaking at the 1941 anniversary of his tribune Gândirea
, referred to Goga's 1937 action against Adevărul and the others as a "splendid act of justice". According to one story, the palatial office formerly belonging to Adevărul was still at the center of a conflict between underground communists and the Guard: during the Legionary Rebellion
of January 1941, the PCR attempted to set it on fire and then blame the arson on the fascists, but this plan was thwarted by press photographer Nicolae Ionescu.
Both Adevărul and Dimineaţa were restored on April 13, 1946, two years since the August 1944 Coup
ended Romania's alliance with Nazi Germany
by bringing down Antonescu. The new editorial staff was led by the aging newspaperman Brănişteanu and the new collective owner was the joint stock company Sărindar S. A. The daily did not have its headquarters in Sărindar (which was allocated to the Luceafărul Printing House), but remained in the same general area, on Matei Millo Street and later on Brezoianu Street. In the first issue of its new series, Adevărul carried Brănişteanu's promise of pursuing the same path as Mille, and was accompanied by a reprint of Mille's political testament. Brănişteanu's article stated: "We did not and will not belong to any person, to any government, to any party." The series coincided with a spell of pluralism contested by the Soviet Union
's occupation of Romania
, the steady communization of stately affairs, and political moves to create a communist regime
. Brănişteanu noted these developments in his debut editorial of 1946, with a positive spin: "We ought to be blind not to have admitted that, in these new times, new men must step and do step to the leadership. We do not shy away from saying that, in general lines, our views meet with those of socialist democracy
, for the preparation of which we have been struggling our entire lives and which is about to be set up here, as well as in most parts of the European continent, after being fulfilled in Russia
."
Barbu Brănişteanu died in December 1947, just days before the Kingdom was replaced with a pro-Soviet people's republic
in which the dominant force was the PCR. The gazette celebrated the political transition, publishing the official communique proclaiming the republic, and commenting on it: "A new face of Romanian history has begun [sic] yesterday. What follows is the Romanian state, which today, as well as tomorrow, will require everyone's disciplined and concentrated work." Honored with a front-page obituary
, Brănişteanu was succeeded by H. Soreanu, who led Adevărul for the following two years.
: according to historian Cristian Vasile, while generally infused with "official propaganda", the paper overall failed in effecting "the transformation requested by the [new] regime." Its content grew more politicized, offering praise to Soviet and Communist party initiatives such as the five-year plans
, the encouragement and spread of atheism
, and the promotion of Russian literature
. Nevertheless, it continued to publish more traditional articles, including reportage pieces by F. Brunea-Fox and texts by poet Demostene Botez, as well as the regular columns Carnetul nostru ("Our Notebook"), Cronica evenimentelor externe ("The Chronicle of Foreign Events"), Cronica muzicală ("The Musical Chronicle"), Glose politice ("Political Glosses"), Ultima oră ("Latest News"), and the cartoon section Chestia zilei ("The Daily Issue"). Another satirical section, titled Tablete ("Tablets") and contributed by Tudor Arghezi
, existed between 1947 and 1948; it came to an abrupt end when Arghezi was banned, having been singled out for his "decadent
" poetry in Sorin Toma's ideological column for Scînteia
, the main communist mouthpiece (see Socialist realism in Romania
). In early 1948, Adevărul was also hosting some of the few independently voiced theater chronicles of the day, including a subversive contribution from the self-exiled author Monica Lovinescu
, where she indirectly referred to communism as Kafkaesque experimentation.
In early 1951, at a time when the communist regime closed down all autonomous press venues, Adevărul was itself taken out of print. It announced the matter to its readers on March 31, 1951, in its final 18,039th issue, stating: "the working class
has set up a new press, emerging from the new development of society: a press for the masses, read and written by millions. [It] expresses the tendencies and higher level of socialist culture; it debates on a daily basis the problems of ideology, of social and political theory, of science and technology, in connection with the preoccupations, the struggles and the victories in the field of labor, intertwined with the vast issues posed by the effort of socialist construction. The mission of Adevĕrul newspaper is over." Cristian Vasile notes that the "official explanation" for suppressing Adevărul was "ridiculous and unconvincing." Indication that the closure occurred unexpectedly also comes from Adevăruls failure to cancel its subscriptions in advance.
, which had toppled the 50-year old communist regime and its single-party system
. The publication, which is housed by Casa Presei Libere
, is often described as a direct successor to the PCR organ Scînteia (rival of the 1940s Adevărul). Two intermediary issues were published during the actual revolutionary events, on December 23 and 24 respectively, under the title Scînteia Poporului ("The People's Spark"), which, while still displaying the old communist symbolism, published appeals issued by the provisional post-communist
leadership forum, the National Salvation Front (FSN). As one of its first measures, the new editorial board dismissed members of the staff who were discredited for having openly supported the last communist ruler, Nicolae Ceauşescu
, replacing them with journalists sympathetic to the FSN. Soon after Ceauşescu's execution, the gazette began serializing Red Horizons, a volume of recollections exposing the defunct regime, authored by Ion Mihai Pacepa
, a defector
and former spy chief. At the time, it circulated the claim, supported by the FSN, that Ceauşescu's repression of the popular revolt had killed as many as 60,000 people, which was a 60-fold increase of the actual death toll.
Edited after its resurgence by the pro-FSN poet and translator Darie Novăceanu, Adevărul became the dominant left-wing newspaper of post-communist Romania
. In parallel, Dimineaţa was itself revived, and, although independent from Adevărul, was also a FSN mouthpiece. Their main right-wing rival was another former Communist Party venue, România Liberă
, which openly reproached on the FSN that it was monopolizing power, and which identified itself with liberalism
and pluralism. Reflecting back on the early 1990s, Southampton Institute researcher David Berry argued: "the ideological forces associated with the previous Stalinist
regime were pitted against a much smaller and disparate oppositional group. This latter group was associated with România Liberă that loosely represented the voice of liberalism and [...] clearly lost the war. This was a battle of ideas and the old forces of Romanian communism used the new press framework, through Adevărul, to discredit opposition forces." In 1990, both papers reputedly sold around 1 million copies each day, a pattern attributed to "news deprivation" under communism, and believed by Berry to be "a phenomenal figure in comparison to any leading Western nation
".
, populist
and authoritarian
concepts, which Berry has associated with the survival of previous national communist
themes in FSN discourse. Such theses acquired particularly controversial representations during the violent Târgu Mureş riots
of March 1990. Backing the official view according to which the ethnic Hungarian community
was organizing itself in separatist
struggle, it dedicated space to articles targeting the opposition Democratic Union of Hungarians
(UDMR). Initially, Berry notes, Adevărul reported claims of extremist Hungarians in Transylvania
committing vandalism
against national monuments while acknowledging that the UDMR was not endorsing such acts, but slowly became a tribune for encouraging ethnic Romanians
to take action, exclusively presenting its public with politicized and unmitigated information provided by the official agency Rompres
and by the Romanian ultra-nationalist group Vatra Românească. Its editorials, often based on rumors, included negative portrayals of Hungarians, methods described by Berry as "extremely xenophobic
", "unethical
" and forms of "political manipulation".
Adevărul displayed constant hostility toward the Golaniad
protests in Bucharest, which ranged for much of early 1990, and expressed praise for the Mineriad
of June 13–15, 1990, during which miners from the Jiu Valley
, instigated by the official discourse, entered Bucharest and put a violent stop to the opposition's demonstrations. The gazette repeatedly called for a Romanian Police
operation to forcefully evict the demonstrators, whom it identified with "filth" and "promiscuity". It also depicted the Golaniad as a major conspiracy
against legitimate government, directed by neofascist and Iron Guard
groups, and amounting to a coup d'état
. Together with the FSN's Azi
, it publicized news of the June 13 events, during which pro-government workers at the IMGB heavy machinery works attempted to force out the crowds, describing their actions as justified by supposed student violence against Police forces.
After the protesters' return and during the subsequent miner-led clampdown, which it portrayed as a peaceful operation, Adevărul was among the Casa Presei Libere publications left untouched by the miners' raid on the building. During the following days, it published material praising the miners for reestablishing order, while alleging that "their presence was absolutely necessary to annihilate the violence of extremist forces". It also popularized false rumors according to which, during their attacks on the opposition National Peasant
and National Liberal
party headquarters, the miners had uncovered weapons, counterfeit money
and illegal drugs
. In addition to main editor Novăceanu, whose articles referred to the clampdown as effected by "our miners", journalists who praised the Mineriad include Sergiu Andon (future Conservative Party
politician), Cristian Tudor Popescu
and Corina Drăgotescu.
Radical nationalism was observed in several Adevărul articles throughout the FSN period. In one piece of March 22, days after the main Hungarian-Romanian clashes, writer Romulus Vulpescu described the danger of "irredentism
" and "Horthyism
", alleging that local Hungarians had assassinated several Romanian peasants. Vulpescu and other contributors repeatedly made unverifiable claims according to which Hungary
was directly involved in stirring resentments, allegations also made by the state-controlled television network
. According to Romanian-born historian Radu Ioanid, in 1990-1991 Adevărul and its opponent Dreptatea
of the anti-FSN National Peasants' Party both "joined the anti-Semitic barrage" of the period, a trend he believes was instigated by the publications of Corneliu Vadim Tudor
, Iosif Constantin Drăgan
and Eugen Barbu
(all of them affiliated with România Mare magazine). Ioanid singled out Adevărul and its collaborator Cristian Tudor Popescu, who, during the July 1991 commemoration of the Iaşi pogrom
, attacked writer Elie Wiesel
and other Holocaust researchers for having evidenced Ion Antonescu
's complicity in extermination. In the early 1990s, Adevărul also stood out for its intense republicanism
which opposed the return of communist-deposed King
Michael I
, and published polemical pieces such as the Fir-ai al naibii, majestate ("Curse You, Your Majesty", written by Andon).
, following a decision of the FSN's Petre Roman
cabinet. A conflict reportedly opposed Novăceanu to Popescu: the latter suspected a secret understanding between Roman and the Adevărul leadership, providing for a facade privatization and transferring financial control to FSN politicians. This controversy ended only when Premier Roman appointed Novăceanu as Romanian Ambassador to Spain. The Scînteia patrimony was afterward divided between Adevărul and the state. In parallel, seeking to consolidate their publications' independence, the writing staff set up a joint stock company
, Adevărul Holding
. Known initially as SC Adevărul SA, it had its initial public offering
distributed through the "MEBO method" of employee buyout
s. As a result, the journalists owned 60% and other employees the other 40%, with a clause forbidding them from selling to outside investors (in effect until 2002). Subsequent trading within the holding and seasoned equity offering
s provided the editorial staff with a controlling stock of approx. 30%. As part of its business profile, the post-privatization Adevărul also earned criticism for not differentiating between articles and commercial content, publishing covert advertisements as opinion pieces. Also at that stage, allegations surfaced that, through a firm known as SC Colosal Import-Export, members of the editorial staff, including Andon, Viorel Sălăgean and Dumitru Tinu, were handling all the larger advertising revenues.
Occasionally, nationalist claims produced by Adevărul parted with the policies of FSN's Social Democratic
(PSD) successors, particularly in matters relating to social issues and Romania's economy
. In June 1993, the gazette attacked the PSD's Nicolae Văcăroiu
cabinet for its privatization measures, claiming that the sale of the Petromin shipping firm to Greek
investors was done "at a pittance", and calling for the executive to resign. This campaign, British
political scientist Judy Batt notes, had a "xenophobic tinge", and its appeal "has shaken confidence in the government and eroded its capacity for action." After the post-Revolution authorities announced their intention to join the European Union
and accepted a monitoring process, the newspaper hosted the first in a long series of Euroskeptic
pieces, which generally objected to outside intervention, particularly in the area of human rights
, and were often signed by columnists Popescu and Bogdan Chireac. British academic and observer Tom Gallagher
attributes this attitude to claims of "injured patriotism
". In parallel, Adevărul displayed a strong socially conservative
agenda. During those years, the paper published numerous pieces covering Romanian society, which were primarily noted for their sensationalist and alarmist
headlines, such as a claim, published in 1997, that "a quarter of Romania's children live in institutions". In early 1996, Adevărul was noted for criticizing local non-governmental organization
s promoting women's rights
, alleging that, although financed by the European Union's Phare
fund, they only functioned on paper (an attitude which itself earned criticism for sexism
). More debates ensued in March 1998, when Cristian Tudor Popescu published an Adevărul article under the title Femeia nu e om ("The Woman Is Not a Human Being", or "The Woman Is Not a Man"), where he alleged that women cannot think. Another controversy of the mid 1990s also involved Popescu, criticized for his Adevărul articles which, claiming freedom of thought
as their motivation, supported the cause of convicted French Holocaust denier
Roger Garaudy
.
A political scandal touched Adevărul some time after the 1996 legislative election
, when the Social Democrats' rivals from the Democratic Convention
, Democratic Party
and other opposition groups formed government. This came after the new Foreign Minister, Adrian Severin
, publicly stated being in possession of a list comprising the names of several leading Romanian journalists who were agents of the Russia
n Federal Security Service. Even though Severin's failure to evidence the claim resulted in his resignation, the list fueled much speculation, including rumors that Dumitru Tinu, by then one of the main Adevărul editors, was one of the people in question. The dispute prolonged itself over the following decade, particularly after Tinu's name was again used by President
Emil Constantinescu
and former Foreign Intelligence Service director Ioan Talpeş
in their recollections of the Severin incident.
Emma Nicholson
, who followed Romania's political scene throughout the decade. She singled out Adevărul and Romania's other major central daily, Evenimentul Zilei
, as "high quality publications". Writing in 2002, Romanian media researcher Alex Ulmanu rated Adevărul "the most successful, and arguably the best Romanian daily". Romanian sociologist and political commentator Marian Petcu sees its enduring popularity as the consequence of a "head start", with Adevărul having inherited from Scînteia "the facilities, the subscribers, the raw materials, the headquarters, the superstructure, the network of local correspondents etc." He also notes that the newer publication had produced a "less warlike and less anti-communist
" discourse than those of other dailies, and therefore appealing to a wider audience. By 2004, Petcu argues, Adevărul maintained a "balance between a reconciliatory but well documented discourse, on the one hand, and, on the other, the observance of journalistic norms and resistance to the temptation to make compromises."
According to surveys carried out around 2004, the paper was being perceived as the most credible title. Its circulation reached a reported 150,000 copies a day, making it one of at most four local dailies to print more than 100,000, and maintaining its lead over all local newspapers, directly above Evenimentul Zilei and Libertatea
. Other data for 2003 places that number at approx. 200,000, roughly equal to that of Evenimentul Zilei, and ranking above Libertatea and Cotidianul
(with 140,000 and 120,000 copies respectively). According to Evenimentul Zilei, the circulation of Adevărul actually dropped from 200,000 in 1998-2000 to 100,000 in the post-2001 era, whereas external auditors revealed that, in 2003, it was the fifth most-read newspaper (after Libertatea, Evenimentul Zilei, Pro Sport and Gazeta Sporturilor
). Alongside Evenimentul Zilei and Pro Sport, Adevărul was also one of the first Romanian periodicals to take an interest in putting out an online edition
and adopting innovations in web design
, making its site the third most popular of its kind in 2002 (the year of its relaunch).
Both Tinu and Popescu helped consolidate their publication's reputation through their numerous television appearances, coming to be seen as leaders of opinion. According to Petcu, the public's confidence was what made Adevărul "autonomous from the political power", while Nicholson attributes such progress to Popescu, whom she sees as "a journalistic icon". At the end of the transition, Petcu assessed the new Adevărul agenda as one in favor of social justice
, social security
and "fast privatization that would avoid massive unemployment
". At the time, the paper's panelists also threw their support behind European integration, a change in political orientation illustrated by Chireac's talk show
on Pro TV
station, titled Pro Vest ("Pro West"). In 2003, Popescu was a co-founder and, after România Liberă editor Petre Mihai Băcanu withdrew from the race, first president of the Romanian Press Club, a professional association whose mission was setting ethical standards in journalism.
Despite such gestures, the paper continued to withstand accusations that it was itself unprofessional. Ulmanu argued that both Adevărul and its smaller competitor Curentul were examples of press striving to be considered "high quality", but noted: "However, one can still find biased, unprofessional or sensationalist reporting in these papers." Disputes also surround its political agenda of the 2000-2004 period. Like the other mainstream publications, Adevărul supported the PSD-backed Ion Iliescu
in the presidential election runoff of late 2000
, against the ultra-nationalist rival of the Greater Romania Party
, Corneliu Vadim Tudor
. In this context, it notably published a piece questioning Tudor's self-identification as a firm adherent of Romanian Orthodoxy
, suggesting that he presented himself to foreigners as a Baptist Union
adherent. Opinions vary about the gazette's relationship with the PSD after the 2000 legislative election
, which consecrated the party's return in government: while political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu
emphasizes its criticism of the Adrian Năstase
cabinet, journalist and academic Manuela Preoteasa discusses PSD's "pressure on the media", and includes Adevărul among venues which, "apparently critical toward PSD [...] avoided criticizing some of the party leaders". In Marian Petcu's view, Adevărul adopted "a discourse stressing the need for prudence and balance, alternated with criticism of the political power whenever the latter failed to take firm decisions."
, took over the role of supervisor in matters of advertising. In 2001-2003, Tinu purchased most stock owned by his colleagues, and came to own over 70% of the total shares, of which some 10% were purchased from Popescu in exchange for 140,000 United States dollar
s. Suspicions arose that Tinu was being secretly financed in this effort by the Jordan
ian businessman Fathi Taher, already known for purchasing much advertisement space in Adevărul during the mid 1990s, and receiving additional support from PSD politician and entrepreneur Viorel Hrebenciuc
. According to a 2003 analysis in Ziarul Financiar
, Adevărul was considered for purchase by the French group Hachette
, and later by a Polish
conglomerate.
In 2003, Tinu died in a car crash. The circumstances of his death, especially the technical details and the alleged financial benefits for third-parties, raised much speculation that he had been in fact murdered. His estate, including his majority stock, was inherited by his daughter, Ana-Maria, but her ownership was contested by the Iucinu family (his secret mistress and her son by Tinu). Their interests were defended in court by former panelist Andon, owner of some 2% of the stock. The editorial board's opposition to the administrative reshuffling proposed by Ana-Maria Tinu also created a lengthy conflict, and prevented her from assuming administrative control of the paper. It was alleged that, at the time of his death, Tinu was considering rebranding
and restructuring, and that, in 2004, the newspaper's profits were only 9% of its total income.
A major crisis took place in 2005, when Popescu resigned from the board and was followed by 50 of his colleagues, all of whom set up a new daily, Gândul
. In one of his last Adevărul pieces, titled Atacul guzganului rozaliu ("The Attack of the Pink Rat"), Popescu accused Hrebenciuc of having imposed his control on the newspaper during the local elections of 2004
, when he allegedly pressured journalists not to criticize the PSD Mayor of Bacău
, Dumitru Sechelariu. Also according to Popescu, Hrebenciuc had urged him and his colleagues to feature more negative and less positive coverage of the PSD rival and Democratic Party
candidate Traian Băsescu
during the presidential suffrage of November 2004
. Atacul guzganului rozaliu also alleged that Ana-Maria Tinu had an understanding with the PSD politician, and her rebranding of Adevărul was Hrebenciuc's attempt to undermine its political independence.
Although Gândul attracted a large following during a number of months, turning a profit in the first month, Adevărul survived the shock. A similar crisis with similar outcomes had affected its rival Evenimentul Zilei in 2004, when the policies of new owners Ringier
forced the resignation of editor Cornel Nistorescu
and the migration of many staff members toward Cotidianul. Nicholson attributes the survival in both cases to the value of a well-established brand
. In 2006, Ana-Maria Tinu sold her share of Adevărul Holding to one of Romania's richest entrepreneurs, the National Liberal
politician Dinu Patriciu
, her move hotly contested by Tinu's son Andrei Iucinu, who looked set to gain a third of the stock and trademark
ownership upon the end of a trial. Patriciu's decisions, including his appointment of a new managerial team, were resisted by Corina Drăgotescu, who resigned and left the newspaper in November 2006. External auditors reported that, between summer 2006 and summer 2007, at a moment linked by American scholar Peter Gross with a rise in influence for the major market players and a loss of overall credibility, Adevărul was the only newspaper not to have incurred a drastic loss in readership (Gândul itself lost an estimated 26,000).
According to data made available by the Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulations, the newspaper's circulation for 2008 ranged between a minimum monthly average of 37,248 copies in January and a maximum one of 109,442 in December. In 2009, the minimum was at 81,388 and the maximum at 150,061. A 2009 article in the rival newspaper Financiarul suggested that Adevărul was being neglected by Patriciu, who invested more in the holding (allegedly in hopes of undermining a trademark which he risked losing, while elevating the publications not affected by Iucinu's claim). However, by 2011, even as Romania's print media experienced major setbacks, the paper expanded in content and the holding enlarged its portfolio. In May 2011, Patriciu transferred 99.92% of Adevărul Holding stocks to another firm in his portfolio, Fast Europe Media N.V. (registered in the Netherlands
). Patriciu himself justified the move as an opener of the Central and Eastern Europe
an markets, but analysts have also seen in this an attempt to capitalize on the Dutch corporate tax
.
, over which it has been repeatedly accused of antiziganism
. In early 2002, the gazette reacted strongly against an advertisement for a soccer match between the Romanian squad
and the French national team
, where the former was being portrayed as a violinist. Adevărul saw this as an attempt to insult Romanians by associating them with Romani music, concluding: "Our French 'brothers' never stop offending us, and they seem to enjoy treating us like gypsies". A November 2008 article, which claimed to be based on a reportage piece first published in El País, depicted Romani Romanians as a leading demographic group within Madrid
's organized crime
networks. The article was condemned by civil society
observers, who uncovered that Adevărul had modified and editorialized the original piece, which actually spoke of the Romanian immigrant population
, without any mention of ethnicity. An analysis made by researchers Isabela Merilă and Michaela Praisler found that, in contrast to Evenimentul Zilei, Adevărul had a socially conservative
bias in reporting on the rise of Romanian hip hop
, which it related to negative social phenomena (violence, drug use), and against which it favored a degree of censorship.
Colecţia Adevărul, the post-2008 book collection issued by Adevărul has itself been the subject of controversies. Two trials were opened on charges of plagiarism
, after the collection issued works by Leo Tolstoy
and Vintilă Corbul, allegedly without respecting the authorship rights
of original translators. Another such conflict was sparked in April 2009, opposing Colecţia Adevărul to Biblioteca pentru toţi ("Everyman's Library") similar book series issued in tandem by the rival daily Jurnalul Naţional
and Editura Litera company. This came after Adevărul reprinted George Călinescu
's Enigma Otiliei ahead of Biblioteca pentru toţi, despite the latter having earlier announced its intention to publish the volume, and reportedly without obtaining permission from copyright
holders. The Romanian Academy
's George Călinescu Institute, which owns the rights to Călinescu's books, joined Editura Litera in initiating a lawsuit against Adevărul. In its first reply to the allegations, Adevărul accused Jurnalul Naţional itself of having taken over the Biblioteca pentru toţi trademark, previously owned by Editura Minerva
, without obtaining the legal rights to its use. Its representatives also spoke out against Antena 1, a television station which, like Jurnalul Naţional, is owned by Intact Group
, accusing it of incorrectly reporting on the issue.
In the months leading up to the 2009 presidential election
, Adevărul launched a special nation-wide advertising campaign
, announcing that it was reducing to a minimum its coverage of the political scene and would not host campaign ads
, directly appealing to people who were declaring themselves disgusted with the election process. The initiative was covered by journalist Gabriel Giurgiu in the cultural magazine Dilema Veche
, which is also part of the Adevărul Holding. Giurgiu's article was a mixed review: it argued that the reaction was understandable, but "regrettable", because it carried the risk of glamorizing voter fatigue
and depriving society of "a necessary burden." Hotnews.ro
owner and columnist Dan Tapalagă placed this stance in connection to Dinu Patriciu's publicized adversity toward incumbent President Băsescu. In his view, Patriciu stood alongside Intact Group owner Dan Voiculescu
and Realitatea-Caţavencu
's Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
as one of the "media moguls" working to prevent Băsescu' reelection. Alluding to the newspaper's promotional offers of cartoon classics on DVD
and popular novels, Tapalagă concluded: "[Adevărul] readers must be forcefully kept away from politics, perhaps kept busy with Tom and Jerry
. Forcefully saturated of politics, the citizen in Patriciu's dreams gobbles up the personal governments concocted together with Voiculescu and Vântu, reads approximate literature and watches animated cartoons."
However, similar criticism of Adevărul was also voiced from within Realitatea-Caţavencu. Cornel Nistorescu
, the new editor of Cotidianul, called the promotion "lobotomizing
", and, contrary to Tapalagă, suggested that it had been induced by President Băsescu, to whom he attributed the power of ordering Patriciu's arrest on allegations of white-collar crime
: "It is as if Traian Băsescu had sent him the message: write one more line about me, and you'll be spending another week in the big house!" Another Cotidianul contributor, Costi Rogozanu, referred to the Adevărul message as "a strange manipulation" and "a dangerous invitation to carelessness", noting that Romanian society was becoming divided between openly partisan media outlets and venues which avoided any discussion about politics.
Under new management, Adevărul acquired a new core group of columnists, including Patriciu himself. The owner's opinion pieces illustrate his commitment to libertarianism
and the free market
, which have little echo inside his own National Liberal Party. The other authors stood for a wide range of opinions, including anti-Patriciu stances. In February 2011, Adevărul even hosted an extended politial debate between Patriciu and another columnist, the former cabinet minister and Băsescu advisor Andrei Pleşu
.
Additionally, the newspaper became focused on revisiting the history of Romanian communism, and ran exposes on the Ceauşescu family
. This interest (seen by Rogozanu as obsessive) was criticized as sensationalist, particularly for claiming that the former dictator had been a youthful homosexual.
's Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n daily newspaper, based in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
position, advocating land reform
Land reform in Romania
Four major land reforms have taken place in Romania: in 1864, 1921, 1945 and 1991. The first sought to undo the feudal structure that had persisted after the unification of the Danubian Principalities in 1859; the second, more drastic reform, tried to resolve lingering peasant discontent and create...
and universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. Under its successive editors Alexandru Beldiman and Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
, it became noted for its virulent criticism of King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
. This stance developed into a republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
agenda, which made Adevărul clash with the Kingdom's authorities on several occasions. As innovative publications which set up several local and international records during the early 20th century, Adevărul and its sister daily Dimineaţa competed for the top position with the right-wing Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
before and throughout the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. In 1920, Adevărul also began publishing its prestigious cultural supplement, Adevărul Literar şi Artistic. By the 1930s, their anti-fascism
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
and the Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
ethnicity of their new owners made Adevărul and Dimineaţa the targets of negative campaigns in the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
press, and the antisemitic Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
cabinet banned them down upon obtaining power in 1937. Adevărul was revived by Barbu Brănişteanu after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but was targeted by Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
's censorship apparatus
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
and again closed down in 1951.
A newspaper of the same name was set up in 1989, just days after the Romanian Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, replacing Scînteia
Scînteia
Scînteia was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history...
, organ of the defunct Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
. Initially a supporter of the dominant National Salvation Front, it adopted a controversial position, being much criticized for producing populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
and radical nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
messages and for supporting the violent Mineriad
Mineriad
See also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...
of 1990. Under editors Dumitru Tinu and Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu is a Romanian journalist, essayist and short-story writer. Author of science fiction stories during his youth, he has also hosted talk shows for various television stations, and had contributions as a literary critic and translator...
, when it reasserted its independence as a socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
venue and was fully privatized
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
, Adevărul became one of the most popular and trusted press venues. It nevertheless remained involved in scandals over alleged or confirmed political and commercial dealings, culminating in a 2005 conflict which saw the departure of Popescu, Bogdan Chireac and other panelists and the creation of rival newspaper Gândul
Gândul
Gândul is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was founded in May 2005 by Mircea Dinescu, who used to write a daily editorial called "Vorba lu' Dinescu", and Cristian Tudor Popescu, who was also the editor-in-chief until January 2008. Its initial circulation was about 52,000...
. As of 2006, Adevărul is the property of Dinu Patriciu
Dinu Patriciu
Dan Costache "Dinu" Patriciu , is a billionaire businessman and entrepreneur with a long standing involvement in real estate. In 1998 he led an investor buyout of the previously state-owned Romanian oil company, Rompetrol...
, a prominent Romanian businessman and politician.
Ownership, editorial team and structure
Adevărul is the main trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
of Adevărul Holding
Adevarul Holding
Adevărul Holding is a media joint stock company owned by Romanian businessman and politician Dinu Patriciu and named after is main publication, the daily newspaper Adevărul. It currently owns newspapers and magazines, and has a television license...
, a company owned by Patriciu. The main newspaper itself is edited by editorial director Laurenţiu Ciocăzanu and a team comprising editor-in-chief Grigore Cartianu and several deputy editors (Ion M. Ioniţă, Ovidiu Nahoi, Andrei Velea and others). Also part of the holding are the cultural magazine Dilema Veche
Dilema Veche
Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...
, the tabloid Click!, the international policy magazine Foreign Policy Romania, the Romanian edition of Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine, the satirical journal Caţavencii, and Blik, a Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
tabloid. In December 2010, Adevărul Holding also launched a sister version of its title asset, published in neighboring Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
as Adevărul Moldova.
The Romanian newspaper has special pages of regional content, one each for Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, the western areas of Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
and Crişana
Crisana
Crișana is a geographical and historical region divided today between Romania and Hungary, named after the Criș River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru and Crișul Repede....
, and the southern areas of Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in south by Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.-Geography:...
. It also hosts columns about the larger sections of Romanian diaspora
Romanian diaspora
The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in the states surrounding Romania, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine and Serbia. The diaspora does include the people of...
in Europe, those in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Adevărul publishes several supplements. In addition to Adevărul Literar şi Artistic (formerly a separate magazine, now issued as a culture supplement which is issued on Wednesdays), it publishes five others: on Mondays, the sports magazine Antifotbal ("Anti-football"), which focuses on the traditionally less-covered areas of the Romanian sports scene
Sport in Romania
The most popular sport in Romania is football. Other popular sports include team handball, basketball, rugby union, tennis and gymnastics.-Football:...
; on Tuesdays, Adevărul Expert Imobiliar ("Real Estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
Expert"); on Thursdays, Adevărul Sănătate ("Health"), a health and lifestyle magazine; on Fridays, a TV guide, Adevărul Ghid TV, followed on Sundays by the entertainment section Magazin de Duminică ("Sunday Magazine"). In October 2008, Adevărul also launched Adevărul de Seară ("Evening Adevărul"), a free daily newspaper
Free daily newspaper
Free daily newspapers are distributed free of charge, either in central places in cities and towns, or with other newspapers. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising.-In the U.S.:...
and evening edition, which was closed down in May 2011.
As of 2008, the newspaper publishes Colecţia Adevărul, a collection of classic and popular works in world and Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
. These are issued as additional supplements, and sold as such with the newspaper's Thursday editions.
Origins
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
which emphasized etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
, in this case from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word veritas
Veritas
In Roman mythology, Veritas, meaning truth, was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn and the mother of Virtue. It was believed that she hid in the bottom of a holy well because she was so elusive. Her image is shown as a young virgin dressed in white...
) was originally founded on December 15, 1871. The weekly was owned by Alexandru Beldiman, a former Police
Romanian Police
The Romanian Police is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.-Duties:The Romanian Police are responsible for:...
commander, and published in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, the former capital of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
. Beldiman directed the newspaper in opposition to Romania's new Domnitor
Domnitor
Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....
, the German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
prince Carol of Hohenzollern
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
, calling for the restoration of his deposed and exiled predecessor, the Moldavian-born Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
. Its articles against the new monarch soon after resulted in Beldiman's indictment for defamation and attack on the 1866 Constitution
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
. He was eventually acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
, but the journal ceased publication with its 13th issue (April 1872).
Adevărul reemerged as a daily on August 15, 1888, seven years after the proclamation of a Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. It was then known as Adevĕrul, which also reflected the veritas origin, and the ĕ, although obsolete by the early 20th century, was kept as a distinctive sign by all the paper's owners until 1951. Initially financed by a printer, who agreed to advance it a short-term credit, the new gazette was co-founded by Alexandru Beldiman and Alexandru Al. Ioan
Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza
Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza was a Romanian aristocrat, businessman and journalist. He was the son of Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, whose rule coincided with the political union between the Danubian Principalities...
, the son of former Domnitor Cuza, and was again noted for its radical and often irreverent critique of newly-crowned King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol and the "foreign dynasty". The small editorial team included writer Grigore Ventura and his son Constantin, as well as, after a while, political columnist I. Hussar. In December 1888, it changed its format, from a No. 6 to a No. 10 in paper size
Paper size
Many paper size standards conventions have existed at different times and in different countries. Today there is one widespread international ISO standard and a localised standard used in North America . The paper sizes affect writing paper, stationery, cards, and some printed documents...
, while abandoning the initial, calligraphed logo, in favor of a standard serif
Serif
In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
which it used until 1951.
Beldiman's hostility to the monarchy was reflected in one of the 15 objectives set by the second series' first issue, whereby Adevărul called for an elective monarchy
Elective monarchy
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected rather than hereditary monarch. The manner of election, the nature of the candidacy and the electors vary from case to case...
with magistratures reserved for locals, and evident in having chosen for the paper's motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
a quote from poet Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
, which read: Să te feresci, Române!, de cuiŭ strein în casă ("Romanians, beware of foreign nails in your house", an allusion to Carol's German origin). The journalists called Carol's accession to the throne by the 1866 plebiscite "an undignified comedy", refused to capitalize
Letter case
In orthography and typography, letter case is the distinction between the larger majuscule and smaller minuscule letters...
references to M. S. Regele ("H[is] M[ajesty] the King"), and referred to May 10, the national celebration of the Kingdom, as a "national day of mourning
National day of mourning
A national day of mourning is a day marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by that nation's government...
". In December 1888, they also published a list of Carol's alleged attacks on Romanian dignity. According to one account, after the newspaper's first May 10 issue came out in 1889, Police forces bought copies which they later set on fire. Reportedly, its circulation peaked on May 10 of each year, from some 5,000 to some 25,000 or 30,000 copies. Adevărul also debated with the German newspapers Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and Kölnische Zeitung, who worried that Romania's anti-dynasticists plotted Carol's murder, assuring them that the actual battle was political, "in broad daylight, on the wide path of public opinion." In 1891, the paper called for boycotting Carol's 25th anniversary on the throne.
Early campaigns
Located in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, the new Adevărul had its original headquarters in Calea Victoriei
Calea Victoriei
Calea Victoriei is a major avenue in central Bucharest. It leads from Splaiul Independenţei to the north and then northwest up to Piaţa Victoriei, where Şoseaua Kiseleff continues north....
(Doamnei Street, Nouă Street, Brătianu Boulevard and Enei Street). It later moved to a building near the National Bank and the Vilacrosse Passage
Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse
Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse is a fork-shaped, yellow glass covered arcaded street in downtown Bucharest, Romania. Câmpineanu Inn once stood in the place nowadays occupied by the passage....
, where it occupied just several rooms (leading its staff to repeatedly complain about the lack of space). A serious crisis occurred during 1892, when, having omitted to register his trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
, Beldiman was confronted with the appearance of a competing Adevărul, published by his former associate Toma Basilescu, who had been the original gazette's administrator for the previous year. In June 1892, an arbitral tribunal
Arbitral tribunal
An arbitral tribunal is a panel of one or more adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may consist of a sole arbitrator, or there may be two or more arbitrators, which might include either a chairman or an umpire...
decided in favor of Beldiman, ordering Basilescu to close down his paper.
With time, the newspaper had moved from advocating King Carol's replacement with a local ruler to supporting republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
. In 1893, as part of its extended campaign, during which it gathered letters of protest from its readers, Adevărul obtained the cancellation of plans for a public subscription to celebrate the engagement of Crown Prince Ferdinand
Ferdinand I of Romania
Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...
to Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
. In addition, Adevărul began militating for a number of major social and political causes, which it perceived as essential to democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. In its 15 points of 1888, it notably demanded universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
to replace the census method enshrined in the 1866 Constitution
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
, unicameralism
Unicameralism
In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house...
through a disestablishment of the Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
, a land reform
Land reform in Romania
Four major land reforms have taken place in Romania: in 1864, 1921, 1945 and 1991. The first sought to undo the feudal structure that had persisted after the unification of the Danubian Principalities in 1859; the second, more drastic reform, tried to resolve lingering peasant discontent and create...
to replace leasehold estate
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
s, self-governance
Self-governance
Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization.It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units , up to and including autonomous regions and...
at a local level, progressive tax
Progressive tax
A progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate...
ation, Sunday rest for employees, universal conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
instead of a permanent under arms
Under arms
Under arms describes a state of military readiness used to describe regular combat-ready military forces. Military personnel can be generally categorized into two groups: regular forces, or the regular army, and auxiliary forces, or the reserve army. Regular forces are fully trained and fully...
force, women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, emancipation
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
for Romanian Jews
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
. It embraced the cause of Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
living outside the Old Kingdom
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
, particularly those in Austro–Hungarian-ruled Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, while calling for Romania to separate itself from its commitment to the Triple Alliance
Triple Alliance (1882)
The Triple Alliance was the military alliance between Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, , that lasted from 1882 until the start of World War I in 1914...
, and advocating a Balkan Federation
Balkan Federation
The Balkan Federation was a project about the creation of a Balkan federation or confederation, based mainly on left political ideas.The concept of a Balkan federation emerged at the late 19th century from among left political forces in the region...
to include Romania.
Adevărul also took an active interest in the problems facing Romania's rural population: while calling for a land reform, it expressed condemnation of the failing sanitary system, which it blamed for the frequency of countryside epidemics, and for the administrative system, which it accused of corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
. It depicted revolt as legitimate, and campaigned in favor of amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
for prisoners taken after the 1888 peasant riots. The paper supported educational reforms
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
in the countryside, calling attention to the specific issues faced by rural teachers, but also campaigned against their use of corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
as a method of maintaining school discipline
School discipline
School discipline is the system of rules, punishments and behavioral strategies appropriate to the regulation of children and the maintenance of order in schools. Its aim is to control the students actions and behavior....
. In similar vein, Adevărul focused on cases of abuse within the Romanian Army, documenting cases where soldiers were being illegally used as indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
s, noting the unsanitary conditions which accounted for an unusually high rate of severe conjunctivitis
Conjunctivitis
Conjunctivitis refers to inflammation of the conjunctiva...
, and condemning officers for regularly beating their subordinates. As part of the latter campaign, it focused on Crown Prince Ferdinand, who was tasked with instructing a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
and is said to have slapped a soldier for not performing the proper moves. Adevărul investigated numerous other excesses of authority, and on several occasions formed special investigative commissions of reporters who followed suspicions of judicial error. It also spoke out in favor of Jewish emancipation, while theorizing a difference between the minority "exploiting Jews" and an assimilable Jewish majority.
Under Beldiman, the newspaper took pride in stating its independence, by taking distance from the two dominant parties
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...
, the Conservatives and the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
, who either supported or tolerated King Carol. This stance reputedly earned the publication an unusual status: anecdotes have it that Conservative leader Lascăr Catargiu
Lascar Catargiu
Lascăr Catargiu was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, and had settled in Moldavia.-Biography:...
would only read Adevărul while in the opposition, and that its columnist Albert Honigman was the first and for long time only journalist allowed into the upper-class society at Casa Capşa
Casa Capsa
Casa Capşa is a historic restaurant in Bucharest, Romania, first established in 1852. At various times it has also included a hotel; most recently, it reopened as a 61-room hotel 17 June 2003....
restaurant. In February 1889, the Conservative Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Theodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti
Theodor Rosetti was a Romanian writer, journalist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 13 April 1888 and 11 April 1889....
reputedly tried to silence Adevărul by having its distributors arrested. In 1892, Adevărul became the first local newspaper to feature a cartoonist section, which hosted caricatures of the period's potentates, and its rebelliousness allegedly frightened the Romanian zincographers
Zincography
Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates. Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications . In 1834, the Frenchman Breugnot patented a zincographic printing process, producing...
to the point where the plates had to be created abroad. In April 1893, the Catargiu cabinet organized a clampdown on the newspaper: it arrested its editor Eduard Dioghenide (who was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
) and, profiting from the non-emancipated status of Romanian Jews, it expelled its Jewish contributors I. Hussar and Carol Schulder. Another incident occurred during May of the following year, when the paper's headquarters were attacked by rioting University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
students, who were reportedly outraged by an article critical of their behavior, but also believed to have been instigated by the Conservative executive's Gendarmerie
Jandarmeria Româna
Jandarmeria Română is the military branch of the two Romanian police forces .The gendarmerie is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform and does not have responsibility for policing the Romanian Armed Forces...
.
In parallel, Adevărul took steps to establishing its reputation as a newspaper of record
Newspaper of record
Newspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish public or legal notices , or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and...
. A local first was established in June 1894, when Adevărul hosted the first foreign correspondence article received by a Romanian periodical: a telegram sent by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
newspaperman Victor Jaclard
Victor Jaclard
Charles Victor Jaclard was a French revolutionary socialist, a member of the First International and of the Paris Commune.-Early Life:...
, discussing the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot
Marie François Sadi Carnot was a French statesman and the fourth president of the Third French Republic. He served as the President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894.-Early life:...
and the accession of Jean Casimir-Perier
Jean Casimir-Perier
Jean Paul Pierre Casimir-Perier was a French politician, fifth president of the French Third Republic.-Biography:He was born in Paris, the son of Auguste Casimir-Perier and the grandson of Casimir Pierre Perier, premier of Louis Philippe...
to the office of President. Adevărul also broke ground by publishing a plate portrait of Casimir-Perier only a day after his rise to prominence. Early on, the newspaper also had a cultural agenda, striving to promote Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
for the general public and following a method outlined by a 1913 article: "In his free time [...], the reader, having satisfied his curiosity about the daily events, finds entertainment for the soul in the newspaper's literary column. People who would not spend a dime on literary works, will nevertheless read literature once this is made available to them, in a newspaper they bought for the information it provides." Initially, Adevărul dedicated its Sunday issue to literary contributions, receiving such pieces from George Coşbuc
George Cosbuc
George Coşbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy....
, Haralamb Lecca, Ioan N. Roman, and the adolescent poet Ştefan Octavian Iosif
Stefan Octavian Iosif
Ştefan Octavian Iosif was a Romanian poet and translator of Aromanian origin.-Life:Born in Braşov, Transylvania , he studied in his native town and in Sibiu before completing his education in Paris. While in France, he met Dimitrie Anghel, who would became a long-time friend...
.
Mille's arrival and rise in popularity
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
and brothers Anton and Ioan Bacalbaşa. In 1895, Mille purchased the newspaper, but, even though the Alecsandri motto was removed a short while after, Beldiman maintained editorial control until his death three years later, explaining that he was doing so in order to maintain an independent line. Mille was an innovator, seen by his contemporaries as a "father of modern Romanian journalism" (a title carved on his tombstone in Bellu cemetery). The purchase was received with consternation by many PSDMR members, particularly since Adevărul competed with its official platforms (Munca and, after 1894, Lumea Nouă
Lumea Noua
Lumea Noua is a middle Neolithic to Chalcolithic archaeological site in Alba Iulia, Romania. The site is named after the Lumea Noua district of the city. The site was first researched by Ion Berciu in the 1940s...
). In late 1893, Adevărul was also publishing articles by an unsigned author, who may have been Constantin Stere
Constantin Stere
Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea was a Romanian writer, jurist, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere;...
(later known as the figure behind the Poporanist
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
ideology) ridiculing Munca for having featured elitist
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
content. Eventually, the party expelled Mille on grounds of having betrayed socialism. In parallel, allegedly upset that Beldiman had chosen Mille's offer over his own, Anton Bacalbaşa quit Adevărul, becoming one of his former colleague's most vocal critics.
In 1904, the board created Adevĕrul S. A., the first in a series of joint stock companies
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
meant to insure its control of commercial rights. In 1898, after Mille invested its profits into real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
, Adevărul left its crowded surroundings and moved to a specially-designed new building on Sărindar Street (the present-day Constantin Mille Street, between Calea Victoriei and the Cişmigiu Gardens
Cismigiu Gardens
The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, spanning areas on all sides of an artificial lake. The gardens' creation was an important moment in the history of Bucharest. They form the oldest and, at 17 hectares, the largest park in city's central area...
). Based on the example set in France by Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
, the palatial headquarters was the first building of such proportions in the history of Romania's printed press, housing a printing press, paper storage, distribution office and mail room, as well as a library, several archives, a phone station and a Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. Its halls were luxuriously decorated according to Mille's specifications, and adorned with poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s by international artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
and Alfons Mucha
Alfons Mucha
Alfons Maria Mucha , known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.-Early years:...
, and by its occasional illustrator, Nicolae Vermont
Nicolae Vermont
Nicolae Vermont was a Romanian realist painter, graphic artist and muralist. He was noted for his wide range of subjects and his interest in social issues, and was an associate of the post-Impressionists Ştefan Luchian and Constantin Artachino, as well as a friend of the controversial art...
. Around 1900, Mille purchased a neighboring plot, the former Saint-Frères manufacturing plant, and unified both buildings under a single facade. It was there that, after placing an order with the Mergenthaler Company, he installed the first Linotype machine
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
s to be used locally.
Adevărul established itself as the most circulated paper, setting up successive records in terms of copies per issue due to Mille's favorable approach to modern printing techniques: from 10,000 in 1894, these brought the circulation to 12,000 in 1895 and 30,000 in 1907. Writing in 1898, Mille took pride in calling his newspaper "a daily encyclopedia" or "cinema" for the regular public, universally available at only 5 bani
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
per copy. In 1904, making efforts to keep up with his rival Luigi Cazzavillan, founder of the right-wing competitor Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
, Mille established a morning edition, which was emancipated under separate management in December of the same year, under the new name Dimineaţa (in 1912, the latter would become known as the first local daily to use full color print
Color printing
Color printing or Colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color...
, with a claim to have been the world's first such newspaper). Beginning 1905, both gazettes ensured stable revenues by leasing their classified advertising
Classified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...
sections to Carol Schulder's Schulder Agency.
Early cultural ventures
In order to consecrate the newspaper's cultural ambitions, Mille became head of a literary club, while he considered creating a separate literary edition. A literary supplement (Adevĕrul Literar, "The Literary Truth") was in print between 1894 and 1896, before being replaced by Adevĕrul Ilustrat ("The Illustrated Truth") and soon after by Adevĕrul de Joi ("The Truth on Thursday"), edited by poet Artur Stavri, and eventually closed down due to lack of funding in 1897. Although short-lived, these publications had a significant part on the cultural scene, and hosted contributions by influential, mostly left-wing, cultural figures: Stavri, Stere, Constantin D. Anghel, Traian DemetrescuTraian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
, Arthur Gorovei
Arthur Gorovei
Arthur Gorovei was a Romanian writer, folklorist and ethnographer. In 1940, he was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.-Publications:...
, Ion Gorun, Henric and Simion Sanielevici. In this context, Adevărul also began receiving contributions from prominent humorist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
—previously a conservative adversary, known for his mockery of republican sensationalism
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
. In return for the 1897 setback, the gazette began allocating space to serialized works of literature, including sketches
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
by Caragiale (most of the writings later published as Momente şi schiţe), as well as The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
by Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
.
In later years, Adevărul experimented by publishing a different supplement each day, including one titled Litere şi Arte ("Arts and Letters"). By the mid 1890s, Adevărul was encouraging developments in visual arts in Romania
Art of Romania
Art of Romania encompasses the artists and artistic movements in Romania.-Romanian contemporary and modern artists:* Almaşan Virgil* Adela Andea* George Apostu* Corneliu Baba* Calin Baban* Sabin Bălaşa* Horia Bernea* Traian Brădean...
, publishing several original posters, and hosting art chronicles signed with various pseudonyms. In 1895, it covered the artistic environment's split into several competing wings: its columnist, using the pseudonym Index, gave a negative review to Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.-Biography:He was born in Pitaru, Dâmboviţa County, Wallachia. In 1843 the family moved to Bucharest. At a young age , he became an apprentice at the workshop of the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for the church of...
and the other Impressionists
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
or Realists
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
who together had rebelled against the official academic salon
Academic art
Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism,...
of C. I. Stăncescu. The following year however, a chronicler who used the pen name Gal praised the anti-academic independents' salon, supporting its members Ştefan Luchian
Stefan Luchian
Ștefan Luchian or Lukian was a Romanian painter, famous for his landscapes and still life works.-Early life:He was born in Ștefănești, a village of Botoșani County, as the son of Major Dumitru Luchian and of Elena Chiriacescu. The Luchian family moved to Bucharest in 1873 and his mother desired...
, Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti
Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti was a Romanian Symbolist poet, essayist, and art and literary critic, who was also known as a journalist and left-wing political agitator. A wealthy landowner, he invested his fortune in patronage and art collecting, becoming one of the main local promoters of modern art,...
and Nicolae Vermont
Nicolae Vermont
Nicolae Vermont was a Romanian realist painter, graphic artist and muralist. He was noted for his wide range of subjects and his interest in social issues, and was an associate of the post-Impressionists Ştefan Luchian and Constantin Artachino, as well as a friend of the controversial art...
(whose portraits it featured as illustrations for the texts, alongside a notorious caricature of C. I. Stăncescu by Nicolae Petrescu-Găină).
By 1905, Adevărul was publishing a supplement titled Viaţa Literară ("The Literary Life", edited by Coşbuc, Gorun and Ilarie Chendi) and two other satirical periodicals, Belgia Orientului ("The Orient's Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
", named after a common sarcastic reference to the Romanian Kingdom) and Nea Ghiţă ("Uncle Ghiţă"). It also began running its own publishing house, Editura Adevĕrul, noted early on for its editions of Constantin Mille's novels, Caragiale's sketches, and George Panu's memoirs of his time with the literary club Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
. In parallel, Mille reached out into other areas of local culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
. Early on, he instituted a tradition of monthly festivities, paid for from his own pocket, and noted for the participation of leading figures in Romanian theater (Maria Giurgea, Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu among them). Beginning 1905, the paper had for its illustrator Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser was a Romanian painter and graphic artist.Born to a Jewish family, he was initially inspired by Expressionism, creating drawings with thick, unmodulated, lines and steep angles...
, one of the major graphic artists of his generation, whose satirical drawings most often targeted Carol I and Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
Emperor Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
(attacked for violently suppressing the 1905 Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
). As a promotional tactic, Adevărul participated in the National Fair of 1906, where it exemplified its printing techniques while putting out a collector's version of the newspaper, titled Adevĕrul la Expoziţie ("Adevĕrul at the Exhibit").
New advocacies and 1907 Revolt coverage
Several mass social, cultural and political campaigns were initiated or endorsed by Adevărul before 1910. According to one of Constantin Mille's columns of 1906, the newspaper continued to see itself as an advocate of people's causes: "Any of our readers know that, should any injustice be committed against them, should all authorities discard them, they will still find shelter under this newspaper's roof." In line with Beldiman and Mille's political vision, it militated for a statue of Domnitor Cuza to be erected in Iaşi (such a monument being eventually inaugurated in 1912). Similar initiatives included the 1904 event marking 400 years since the death of Moldavian PrinceRulers of Moldavia
This is a List of rulers of Moldavia, from the first mention of the medieval polity east of the Carpathians and until its disestablishment in 1862, when it united with Wallachia, the other Danubian Principality, to form the modern-day state of Romania.-Notes:...
Stephen the Great
Stephen III of Moldavia
Stephen III of Moldavia was Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504 and the most prominent representative of the House of Mușat.During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the...
, and the erection in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
of a bust honoring its deceased contributor, poet Traian Demetrescu. At around the same time, Mille's gazette became a noted supporter of feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, and created a special column, Cronica femeii ("The Woman's Chronicle"), assigned to female journalist Ecaterina Raicoviceanu-Fulmen. Over the following decade, it hosted regular contributions by other militant women, among them Lucrezzia Karnabatt, E. Marghita, Maura Prigor, Laura Vampa and Aida Vrioni. Having endorsed the creation of a journalists' trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and a Romanian Writers' Society, the newspaper also claimed to have inspired the idea of a Bucharest ambulance service
Emergency medical services
Emergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...
, a project taken up by physician Nicolae Minovici and fulfilled in 1906. Despite his leftist sympathies, Mille found himself in conflict with Romania's labor movement: believing that the Linotype machines would render their jobs obsolete, they went on strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, before the editor himself resolved to educate them all in the new techniques.
Adevăruls ongoing support for Jewish emancipation was accompanied by a sympathetic take on the growing Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
movement. In 1902, the paper offered an enthusiastic reception to visiting French Zionist Bernard Lazare
Bernard Lazare
Bernard Lazare was a French Jewish literary critic, political journalist, polemicist, and anarchist. He was also among the first Dreyfusards.-Youth:...
, prompting negative comments from the antisemitic French observers. By 1906, Adevăruls attitude prompted historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, leader of the antisemitic Democratic Nationalist Party, to accuse the newspaper of cultivating a "Jewish national sentiment" which, he claimed, had for its actual goal the destruction of Romania. In his Naţionalism sau democraţie ("Nationalism or Democracy") series of articles for Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul or Semănătorul was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuţă and George Coşbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism, neoromanticism and ethnic nationalism...
magazine (an ethno-nationalist
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
organ published by Iorga), the Transylvanian-based thinker Aurel Popovici
Aurel Popovici
Aurel C. Popovici was an ethnic Romanian Austro-Hungarian lawyer and politician of Serb origin...
, who criticized the elites of Austria–Hungary on grounds that they were serving Jewish interests, alleged that the impact of Adevărul and Dimineaţa carried the same risk for Romania. In later years, Iorga casually referred to Adevărul as "the Jewish press organ", while, together with his political associate A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
and other contributors to his Neamul Românesc journal, he repeatedly claimed that the entire press was controlled by the Jews. The antisemitic discourse targeting the Sărindar-based publications was taken up in the same period by the traditionalist Transylvanian poet Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
and by businessman-journalist Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu was a nationalist Romanian journalist.From 1914 to 1943, Popescu was director of Universul....
(who, in 1915, became owner of Universul).
Pursuing its interest in the peasant question, Adevărul was one of the main factors of dissent during the 1907 Peasant Revolt
1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt
The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners....
, which was violently quelled by the National Liberal cabinet of Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
. The paper reported on or made allegations about the shooting and maltreatment of peasants, reputedly to the point where government officials promised to end repression if Mille agreed to tone down his publication. Various researchers accuse Mille of having seriously exaggerated the scale of repression for political purposes. Historian Anton Caragea, who theorizes the intrusion of Austria–Hungary, argues that, having received payments from Austro–Hungarian spies, both Adevărul and Universul were conditioned to incite public sentiment against the Sturdza executive. Soon after the revolt, Editura Adevĕrul published Caragiale's 1907, din primăvară până în toamnă ("1907, From Spring to Autumn"), an attack on the Kingdom's institutions and analysis of its failures in connection to the rebellion, which was an instant best-seller.
Early 1910s
Following the 1907 events, the gazette participated in an extended anti-monarchy campaign, which also involved Facla, a newspaper edited by Mille's son-in-law, the republicanRepublicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
and socialist journalist N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and left-wing political activist, known as a major but controversial figure in the field of political satire...
, as well as Romanian anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
milieus. In 1912, it participated in one of Cocea's publicity stunts, during which the Facla editor, together with his colleague, poet Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, simulated their own trial for lèse majesté
Lèse majesté
Lese-majesty is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.This behavior was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic in Ancient Rome...
, by reporting the mock procedures and hosting advertisements for Facla. Like Facla itself, Adevărul circulated stereotypical satires of Carol I, constantly referring to him as neamţul ("the German" in colloquial terms) or căpuşa ("the tick"). In parallel, Adevărul resumed its cultural and social campaigning. By 1908, it was taking an interest in the emerging European avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, but was reserved toward its most radical representative, Futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
, while deploring the end of literary realism
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
.
In 1912, the combined circulation of Adevărul and Dimineaţa exceeded 100,000 copies, bringing it a revenue of 1 million lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
; the two periodicals assessed that, between January and August 1914, they had printed some 1,284 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s of paper. Adevărul had become the highest-grossing, but also the highest-paying press venue, and consequently the most sought-after employer: in 1913, it had a writing and technical staff of 250 people (whose salaries amounted to some 540,000 lei), in addition to whom it employed 60 correspondents and 1,800 official distributors. Adevărul reportedly had a notoriously stiff editorial policy, outlined by Mille and applied by his administrative editor Sache Petreanu, whereby it taxed the proofreaders
Proofreading
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication.-Traditional method:A proof is...
for each typo. Mille himself repeatedly urged his employees to keep up with the events, notably by decking the walls with portraits of a 19th-century manager, Zaharia Carcalechi, a negative example for his habit of printing his gazettes at highly irregular intervals. In addition to establishing permanent telephone links within Austria–Hungary (in both Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
), Adevărul maintained a regular correspondence with various Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
capitals, and pioneered shorthand
Shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
in transcribing interviews. Among its indigenous journalists to be sent on special assignment abroad were Emil Fagure and Barbu Brănişteanu, who reported on the 1908 Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
from inside the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, as well as from the Principality of Bulgaria
Principality of Bulgaria
The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...
and the Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
. The newspaper was nevertheless subject to a practical joke
Practical joke
A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, typically causing the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on the joke, rather than being fooled into handing over money or...
played by its correspondent, future writer Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
: instead of continuing his Adevărul-sponsored trip to France, Eftimiu stopped in Vienna, and compiled his "Letters from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
" column from the press articles he read at Café Arkaden.
The efforts made for establishing and preserving international connections, the newspaper itself later claimed, meant that it was among the first in the world to report several European events: the 1911 food riots in Vienna, the outbreak of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, and the diplomatic conflict between the Greek
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
and Bulgarian Kingdoms in the run-up to the Second Balkan War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
. During the latter showdowns, Adevărul also employed several literary and political personalities as its correspondents: the paper's future manager Iacob Rosenthal in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, Serbian journalist Pera Taletov in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Romanian writer Argentina Monteoru in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, and Prince Albert Gjika in Cetinje
Cetinje
Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...
. In July 1913, the newspaper reported extensively on massacres committed by the Hellenic Army
Hellenic Army
The Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...
in Dojran
Dojran
Dojran was a city located on the western shore of Dojran Lake in the south-eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia. Today, it is collective name for two villages that exist on the territory of the ruined city: Nov Dojran and Star Dojran, which contains both old ruins and recent construction,...
, Kilkis
Kilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
and other settlements of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
, while discussing the "terror regime" instituted in Bulgaria by Tsar Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand , born Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry, was the ruler of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1918, first as knyaz and later as tsar...
. Later the same month, as Romania joined the anti-Bulgarian coalition and her troops entered Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...
, Adevărul gave coverage to the spread of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
among soldiers, accusing the Conservative executive headed by Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
of hiding its actual toll.
Also at that stage, the newspaper had become known for organizing raffle
Raffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
s, which provided winners with expensive prizes, such as real estate and furniture. It was also the first periodical to have established itself in the countryside, a record secured through a special contract with the Romanian Post, whereby postmen acted as press distributors, allowing some 300 press storage rooms to be established nationally. Political differences of the period, pitting Adevărul editors against National Liberal politicos, threatened this monopoly: under National Liberal cabinets, the Post was prevented from distributing the newspaper, leading it to rely on subscriptions and private distributors. Famous among the latter were Bucharest paperboy
Paperboy
A paperboy is the general name for a person employed by a newspaper, They are often used around the office to run low end errands. They make copies and distribute them. Paperboys traditionally were and are still often portrayed on television and movies as preteen boys, often on a bicycle...
s, who advertised Adevărul with political songs such as the republican anthem La Marseillaise
La Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795...
.
World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the newspaper further divided the surviving socialist camp by swinging into the interventionist
Interventionism (politics)
Interventionism is a term for a policy of non-defensive activity undertaken by a nation-state, or other geo-political jurisdiction of a lesser or greater nature, to manipulate an economy or society...
group, calling for a declaration of war against the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
. This position was more compatible with that of newspapers like Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
, Flacăra
Flacăra
Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....
, Furnica or Epoca, clashing with the socialist press, the Poporanists
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
, and Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
gazettes such as Seara
Seara (newspaper)
Seara was a daily newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania, before and during World War I. Owned by politician Grigore Gheorghe Cantacuzino and, through most of its existence, managed by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, it was an unofficial and unorthodox tribune for the Conservative...
, Steagul, Minerva or Opinia. According to historian Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...
, this stance was partly explained by the Jewish origin of its panelists, who, as advocates of assimilation, wanted to identify with the Romanian cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism is a form of nationalism in which the nation is defined by a shared culture. It is an intermediate position between ethnic nationalism on one hand and liberal nationalism on the other....
and irredenta; an exception was the Germanophile Brănişteanu, for a while marginalized within the group.
Adevărul agitated with energy against Austria–Hungary on the Transylvanian issue, while giving less exposure to the problems of Romanians in Russian-held Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
. This was a programatic choice, outlined by Transylvanian academic Ioan Ursu in a September 1914 article for Adevărul, where Russophobia
Russophobia
Russophobia refers to a diverse spectrum of prejudices, dislikes or fears of Russia, Russians, or Russian culture. Its opposite is Russophilia....
was condemned as a canard. Over the course of 1914, the aging historian A. D. Xenopol also made Adevărul the host of his interventionist essays, later collected as a volume. In early winter 1915, Adevărul publicized the visit of British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
scholar Robert William Seton-Watson
Robert William Seton-Watson
Robert William Seton-Watson , commonly referred to as R.W. Seton-Watson, and also known by the pseudonym Scotus Viator, was a British political activist and historian who played an active role in encouraging the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the emergence of Czechoslovakia and...
, who campaigned in favor of the Entente Powers
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
and supported the interventionist Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians. In his interview with Adevărul, Seton-Watson identified the goals of Romanians with those of Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
, stressing that their common interest called for the partition of Austria–Hungary, ending what he called "the brutal and artificial domination of the Magyar race". One of the newspaper's own articles, published in April 1916, focused on the ethnic German Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
and their relationship with Romanians in Austria–Hungary, claiming: "Except for the Hungarians, we had throughout our history, just as we have today, an enemy just as irreducible and who would desire our disappearance just as much: the Saxon people." According to literary historian Dumitru Hîncu, such discourse was replicated by other pro-Entente venues, marking a temporary break with a local tradition of more positive ethnic stereotype
Ethnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:*African Americans...
s regarding the Germans.
The interventionist campaign peaked in summer 1916, when it became apparent that Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
's National Liberal cabinet was pondering Romania's entry into the conflict on the Entente side (see Romania during World War I). Mille himself explained the war as a "corrective" answer to Romania's social problems and a "diversion" for the rebellion-minded peasants. The newspaper, described by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scholar Glenn E. Torrey as "sensationalist", provided enthusiastic accounts of the Russians' Brusilov Offensive
Brusilov Offensive
The Brusilov Offensive , also known as the June Advance, was the Russian Empire's greatest feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. Prof. Graydon A. Tunstall of the University of South Florida called the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 the worst crisis of...
, which had stabilized the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
in Romania's proximity, announcing that the "supreme moment" for Romania's intervention had arrived. This attitude resulted in a clash between Adevărul on one side and Romania's new dominant socialist faction, the Romanian Social Democratic Party
Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)
The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social-democratic political party in Romania. It published the magazine România Muncitoare, and later Socialismul, Lumea Nouă, and Libertatea.-Early party:...
(PSDR) and the socialist-controlled labor movement on the other. The newspaper reported the official government position on the bloody confrontations between workers and Romanian Army troops in the city of Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
. Using a style Torrey describes as "inflammatory", Adevărul also attacked PSDR leader Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
, co-founder of the anti-interventionist and internationalist
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
Zimmerwald Movement
Zimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
, accusing him of being an "adventurer" and hireling of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. In a 1915 letter to Zimmerwald promoter Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, Rakovsky himself claimed that Mille had been corrupted by Take Ionescu
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party , he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social...
, leader of the pro-Entente Conservative-Democratic Party, and that his newspapers issued propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
"under the mask of independence".
Romania eventually signed the 1916 Treaty of Bucharest, committing herself to the Entente cause. Its intervention in the war was nevertheless ill-fated, and resulted in the occupation of Bucharest and much of the surrounding regions by the Central Powers, with the Romanian authorities taking refuge in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
. While Mille himself fled to Iaşi and later Paris, his newspapers were banned by the German authorities and the Sărindar headquarters became home to the German-language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
official mouthpiece, Bukarester Tageblatt. Brănişteanu, who did not join in the exodus, worked with Constantin Stere
Constantin Stere
Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea was a Romanian writer, jurist, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere;...
on the Germanophile paper Lumina. In early 1919, as the Germans lost the war, Mille returned and both Adevărul and Dimineaţa were again in print. In later years, Adevăruls Constantin Costa-Foru
Constantin Costa-Foru
Constantin Gheorghe Costa-Foru was a Romanian journalist, lawyer and human rights activist.He was born in Bucharest, on 26 October, in a wealthy family of Jewish origin...
covered in detail and with noted clemency the trials of various "collaborationist
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
" journalists, including some of its former and future contributors (Stere, Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, Saniel Grossman). The newspaper was by then also reporting about Seton-Watson's disappointment with post-war Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
and the centralist
Centralized government
A centralized or centralised government is one in which power or legal authority is exerted or coordinated by a de facto political executive to which federal states, local authorities, and smaller units are considered subject...
agenda of its founders.
Early interwar years
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
and preserved its formative role for popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, while being joined its niche by new widely-circulated and left-oriented venues (Cuvântul Liber
Cuvântul Liber (1924)
Cuvântul Liber was a Romanian political and cultural weekly published by Eugen Filotti from 1924 to 1925. Writers such as Ion Barbu, Victor Eftimiu and Tudor Arghezi or musicians, such as George Enescu or film critics such as the publisher's brother Mircea Filotti were among the...
and Rampa among them). More serious competition came from its established rival Universul, which reportedly surpassed it in popularity. In 1920, Mille retired from the position of editor-in-chief and moved on to found Lupta journal, amidst allegations that he had been pressured out by business interests. Adevărul and Dimineaţa were both purchased by Aristide Blank, a Romanian Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
entrepreneur, National Liberal politician and owner of Editura Cultura Naţională company, who sold the controlling stock to other prominent Jewish businessmen, Emil and Simion Pauker, reactivating the Adevĕrul S. A. holding in the process. Mille himself was replaced by Constantin Graur, who held it until 1936. Simion and Emil Pauker were, respectively, the father and uncle of Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker was a Romanian communist militant and husband of the future Romanian Communist leader Ana Pauker....
, later a maverick figure in the outlawed Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
(PCR), and their ethnicity made the two newspapers the preferred targets of attacks from among antisemitic groups. Later that decade, Adevărul was generally sympathetic to the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
, the main political force opposing the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
establishment.
The paper hosted a new generation of panelists, most of whom were known for their advocacy of left-wing causes. In addition to professional journalists Brănişteanu, Constantin Bacalbaşa, Tudor Teodorescu-Branişte, they included respected novelist Mihail Sadoveanu
Mihail Sadoveanu
Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting republican head of state under the communist regime . One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as...
and debuting essayist Petre Pandrea, as well as the best-selling fiction author Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu was a Romanian journalist, novelist and children's writer.He was inspired by the works of Honoré de Balzac, attempting to write a Romanian novel cycle that would mirror Balzac's La Comédie humaine...
, who was briefly a member of the editorial staff. Other writers with socialist or pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
sympathies also became collaborators of Adevărul and Dimineaţa, most notably: Elena Farago, Eugen Relgis
Eugen Relgis
Eugen D. Relgis was a Romanian writer, pacifist philosopher and anarchist militant, known as a theorist of humanitarianism...
, Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu was a Romanian playwright.- Biography :...
and George Mihail Zamfirescu. Despite the effects of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the new management purchased another building in Sărindar area, tearing it down and replacing it with another palace wing, in reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
, and unifying the three facades by late 1933. The extended location, covering some 1,700 m², came to house a rotary printing press
Rotary printing press
A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Printing can be done on large number of substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and...
which was also in use by the magazine Realitatea Ilustrată, a conference hall, a cafeteria
Cafeteria
A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
and sleeping quarters for the janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
s.
The post-1920 issues introduced a number of changes in format. It began hosting photojournalistic
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
pieces by Iosif Berman, one of Romania's celebrated photographers (who had made his debut with Dimineaţa in 1913). The paper began headlining its front page with short column grouping the most important news of the day, grouped together into a single paragraph and often accompanied by satirical comments. Among the other innovations were regular pieces discussing developments in literature and philosophy, written by two young modernist
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
authors, Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor...
and Ion Vinea, as well as a regular theater chronicle, contributed by Fagure and Iosif Nădejde. Vinea's articles illustrated his theories about the need for authenticity, his eclecticism
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
, and his belief that novel was innately inferior to lyrical prose. Other articles showed his rivalry with his former co-editor of Simbolul
Simbolul
Simbolul was a Romanian literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between October and December 1912. Co-founded by writers Tristan Tzara and Ion Vinea, together with visual artist Marcel Janco, while they were all high school students, the journal was a late representative of international...
magazine, Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
, and his stated reserves toward Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, the radical avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
current Tzara had helped establish in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
during the war. In 1922, Vinea participated in establishing Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
, an influential art magazine and socialist venue which had cordial relations with Adevărul. Also at the time, the newspaper had a printing contract with Alexandru Tzaran, a socialist activist and entrepreneur, whose company also published avant-garde books. Adevărul had also resumed its own projects of creating a separate literary venue, and, in 1920, had more success by setting up Adevĕrul Literar şi Artistic, which became one of the prominent cultural journals of its era. Seven years later, it also began printing a magazine for Romanian Radio enthusiasts, under the title Radio Adevĕrul.
The newspaper remained involved in cultural debates throughout the following two decades, attracting contributions from various cultural ideologists, among them critics Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library...
, Petru Comarnescu
Petru Comarnescu
Petru Comarnescu was a Romanian literary and art critic and translator.Born in Iași into a family that was related to the metropolitan bishop Veniamin Costache, he studied at the University of Bucharest law , philosophy and philology before going in 1931 on a two-year scholarship to the United...
, Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban...
and Paul Zarifopol, writers Demostene Botez, Eugeniu Botez
Eugeniu Botez
Eugeniu Botez was a Romanian writer, best known for his novel Europolis . Botez wrote under the pseudonym Jean Bart....
, Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
, Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu
Eugen Jebeleanu , Romanian poet, was born in Câmpina, where he attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Braşov at age 11 in 1922, he published his first poems five years later in the literary review Viaţa literară...
and Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu was a Romanian playwright, novelist, philosopher and poet. He marked the end of the traditional novel era and laid the foundation of the modern novel era.- Life :...
, and Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
cultural activist Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Besaria, Basarya or Bazaria , was a Macedonian-born Aromanian cultural activist, Ottoman statesman and Romanian writer...
. Beginning 1928, Cioculescu took over the literary column. That same year, Adevărul hosted part of the dispute between Cioculescu and another prominent critic of the period, Perpessicius
Perpessicius
Perpessicius was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction writer. One of the prominent literary chroniclers of the Romanian interwar, he stood apart in his generation for having thrown his support behind the modernist and avant-garde currents of Romanian literature...
, the former of whom accused the latter of being too eclectic and generous. In 1931, it circulated young critic Lucian Boz's defense of Tristan Tzara and praise sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi
Constantin Brancusi
Constantin Brâncuşi was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris...
, both of whom, he stressed, had brought "fresh Romanian air into the realm of Western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
". By 1932, it was hosting contributions from George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
, including one which criticized his former disciple Boz, and excerpts from Lovinescu's memoirs. In 1937, novelist and chronicler Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca
Felix Aderca or F. Aderca Aderca, also known as Zelicu Froim Adercu or Froim Aderca; March 13, 1891 – December 12, 1962) was a Romanian novelist, playwright, poet, journalist and critic, noted as a representative of rebellious modernism in the context of Romanian literature...
contributed an article challenging Lovinescu for having ignored the work of avant-garde founding figure Urmuz
Urmuz
Urmuz was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's avant-garde scene. His scattered work, consisting of absurdist short prose and poetry, opened a new genre in Romanian letters and humor, and captured the imagination of modernists for several generations...
. The same year, Adevărul hosted a special column, probably though of by feminist writer Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan
Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan
Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan was a Romanian literary critic, educationist, opinion journalist, poet and feminist militant. She spent her youth advocating socialism, and rallied with left-wing politics for the remainder of her life, primarily as a representative of Poporanist circles and personal friend...
(already known to Adevărul readers as a popularizer of English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
), which hosted special contributions from women of note in both culture and society.
In parallel, Editura Adevĕrul published some of Romanian literature's best-sellers. These included works by some Romania's most acclaimed authors of the day, among them Sadoveanu, Călinescu, Eugeniu Botez, Liviu Rebreanu
Liviu Rebreanu
Liviu Rebreanu was a Romanian novelist, playwright, short story writer, and journalist.- Life :Born in Târlișua , Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary, he was the second of thirteen children born to Vasile Rebreanu, a schoolteacher, and Ludovica Diuganu, descendants of peasants...
, Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
. In addition to these, it printed several other popular works, such as memoirs and essays by Queen Marie of Romania
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
, the successful Titanic Vals play by Tudor Muşatescu
Tudor Musatescu
Tudor Muşatescu was a Romanian playwright and short story writer, best known for his humorous prose.-Biography:Muşatescu was born in Câmpulung to a family of middle-class intellectuals — his father was a lawyer while his mother was a writer. He began writing during his early years in school...
, and, after 1934, a number of primary school textbooks. By the mid 1930s, Adevărul had launched sister magazines dedicated to photo-reportage (Realitatea Ilustrată), Hollywood films
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
(Film) and health (Medicul Nostru).
Clashes with the far right
Both Adevărul and Dimineaţa were noted for their rejection of interwar antisemitism, and for condemning the far rightFar right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
and fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
segment of the political spectrum, at the time illustrated by the National-Christian Defense League
National-Christian Defense League
The National-Christian Defense League was a virulently anti-Semitic political party of Romania formed by A. C. Cuza.-Origins:The group had its roots in the National Christian Union, formed in 1922 by Cuza and the famed physiologist Nicolae Paulescu. This group, which used the swastika as its...
(LANC) of Adevăruls old adversary A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
. During 1921, the liberal Fagure ridiculed the supposed threat of a Jewish-led communization in newly-acquired Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, countering officially-endorsed and Universul-circulated speculations about Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...
. In 1923, Adevărul publishing house printed a booklet by the leftist figure Emil Socor, who exposed A. C. Cuza's recourse to plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
. The same year, the LANC's entire paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
wing, including its young leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period...
, were arrested by the authorities, who uncovered their plan to murder National Liberal politicians, the editors of Lupta and Adevărul manager Iacob Rosenthal. Adevărul later published the results of an investigation by anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
reporter Dinu Dumbravă, who assessed the LANC's implication in the 1925 pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
of Focşani
Focsani
Focşani is the capital city of Vrancea County in Romania on the shores the Milcov river, in the historical region of Moldavia. It has a population of 101,854.-Geography:...
town, together with the clandestine spread of antisemitic theories through the educational system
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
; in 1927, it joined the condemnation of LANC violence in Transylvania, and hosted a piece by lawyer-activist Dem. I. Dobrescu in which Codreanu's men were referred to as "a shame" for Romania. In December 1930, leftist sociologist Mihai Ralea, one of the main figures in the Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
circle, chose Adevărul as the venue for his essay Răzbunarea noţiunii de democraţie ("Avenging the Notion of Democracy"), which condemned the then-popular theory that democratic regimes were inferior to totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
ones. Adevărul reported with concern on conspiracies
Conspiracy (political)
In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
against the legitimate government, including officer Victor Precup's attempt to assassinate King Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
1934.
In parallel, Adevărul took an interest in promoting alternatives to nationalist theories. It thus attempted to mediate the ongoing disputes between Romania and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, an editorial policy was notably illustrated in 1923, when the exiled Hungarian thinker Oszkár Jászi
Oszkár Jászi
Oszkár Jászi , known in English as Oscar Jászi, was a Hungarian social scientist, historian, and politician and founder of the Grand Orient rhyte Freemason Lodge of Budapest: the Martinovics Lodge- Early years :...
visited Bucharest. In that context, Adevărul published Jászi's interview with essayist Constantin Costa-Foru
Constantin Costa-Foru
Constantin Gheorghe Costa-Foru was a Romanian journalist, lawyer and human rights activist.He was born in Bucharest, on 26 October, in a wealthy family of Jewish origin...
, which discussed projects for a Danubian Confederation, while criticizing "thoughts of war and sentiments of hatred" expressed by representatives of both nations. Another Adevărul piece of the time, in which Jászi's ideals were commended as opposites of the Hungarian Regency
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
The Kingdom of Hungary also known as the Regency, existed from 1920 to 1946 and was a de facto country under Regent Miklós Horthy. Horthy officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy of Charles IV, Apostolic King of Hungary...
and the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
regime, raised alarm among Hungarian officials, being mentioned in an official report by Hungarian Ambassador Iván Rubido-Zichy. Later, even as Jászi's arguments came to be viewed with suspicion by many Romanians and openly rejected by members of the Hungarian community in Romania
Hungarians in Romania
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....
, Adevărul continued to express sympathy to the cause, notably with a 1935 essay by Transylvanian journalist Ion Clopoţel. The newspaper also denounced interwar Germany
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
's Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
attempts (that is, the absorption of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
), primarily because they stood to channel Hungary's revanchism
Revanchism
Revanchism is a term used since the 1870s to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or...
, while reporting with sarcasm on the friendly contacts between the Romanian LANC and the revanchist Szeged Fascists
Hungarian National Defence Association
The Hungarian National Defence Association was an early fascist movement active in Hungary. The structure of the group was largely paramilitary and as such separate from its leader's later political initiatives....
. Adevăruls critical scrutiny of Romanian nationalist policies in post-1920 Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, primarily in Transylvania and Bessarabia, was notably present in articles contributed by Onisifor Ghibu
Onisifor Ghibu
Onisifor Ghibu was a Romanian teacher of pedagogy, member of the Romanian Academy, and politician.-Early life:...
, a former activist for the Transylvanian Romanian cause.
One of the new causes in which Adevărul involved itself after 1918 was birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
, which it supported from an eugenic
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
perspective. This advocacy was foremost illustrated by the regular medical column of 1923, signed Doctor Ygrec (the pseudonym of a Jewish practitioner), which proposed both prenuptial certificates and the legalization of abortion
Abortion in Romania
Abortion in Romania is legal during the first 14 weeks of the pregnancy. Abortions during later stages of pregnancy are legal only when the woman's life is at risk...
. The issues attracted much interest after Ygrec and his counterpart at Universul, who expressed moral and social objections, debated the matter for an entire month. While voicing such concerns, Adevărul itself published prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
d claims, such as a 1928 article by physician George D. Ionăşescu, who portrayed the steady migration of Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
n natives into Bucharest as a "social danger" which brought with it "promiscuity, squalor and infection", and called for restrictions on internal migration. Generally anti-racist
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
, the paper helped publicize the alternative, anti-fascist racialism
Racialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
proposed by Henric Sanielevici in the 1930s. Adevărul also published a 1929 piece by Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, in which the latter showed his adversity to radical forms of feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, recommending women to find their comfort in marriage.
By the mid 1930s, the tension between Adevărul and the increasingly pro-fascist Universul degenerated into open confrontation. Emil Pauker's newspapers were by then also being targeted by the new fascist movement known as the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
, led by former LANC member Codreanu: in 1930, one of its editors was shot by a follower of Codreanu, but escaped with his life. According to the recollections of PCR activist Silviu Brucan
Silviu Brucan
Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...
, the Iron Guardists, who supported Universul, attacked distributors of Adevărul and Dimineaţa, prompting young communist and socialists to organize themselves into vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
groups and fight back, which in turn led to a series of street battles. Beginning 1935, the scandals also involved Sfarmă-Piatră
Sfarma-Piatra
Sfarmă-Piatră was an antisemitic daily, monthly and later weekly newspaper, published in Romania during the late 1930s and early 1940s...
, a virulent far right newspaper headed by Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist and antisemitic activities...
and funded by Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu was a nationalist Romanian journalist.From 1914 to 1943, Popescu was director of Universul....
, the new publisher of Universul. While engaged in this conflict, Adevărul stood out among local newspapers for supporting the PCR during a 1936 trial of its activists which took place in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
, and involved as a co-defendant Simion Pauker's daughter-in-law, Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
. According to a claim made by the mainstream politician Constantin Argetoianu
Constantin Argetoianu
Constantin Argetoianu was a Romanian politician, one of the best-known personalities of interwar Greater Romania, who served as the Prime Minister between September 28 and November 23, 1939. His memoirs, Memorii. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri Constantin Argetoianu...
, which reported a confidential statement by an Adevărul journalist, this editorial line was exclusively owed to family relationships and imposed by Emil Pauker, who otherwise continued to manifest himself as an anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
. Also that year, Batzaria left the Adevărul group and joined Universul, where he consequently displayed a degree of sympathy for the far right discourse.
In summer 1936, the Paukers sold their stock to a consortium of businessmen with National Liberal connections, which was headed by Emanoil Tătărescu, the brother of acting Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
. Mihail Sadoveanu succeeded Graur as editor-in-chief, while also taking over leadership of Dimineaţa, and Eugen Lovinescu became a member of the company's executive panel. With this change in management came a new stage in the conflict opposing Adevărul to the far right press. Through the voices of Crainic, Alexandru Gregorian and N. Crevedia, the two extremist journals Porunca Vremii and Sfarmă-Piatră, repeatedly targeted Sadoveanu with antisemitic and antimasonic
Anti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry is defined as "avowed opposition to Freemasonry". However, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement...
epithets, accusing him of having become a tool for Jewish interests and, as leader of the Romanian Freemasonry
Freemasonry in Romania
The beginnings of Freemasonry in the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia date to the 18th century and the activities of the humanist scholar Anton Maria del Chiaro, secretary to voivodes Constantin Brâncoveanu and Constantine Mavrocordatos...
, of promoting occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
practices. The controversy also involved modernist poet Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, whose writings Sadoveanu defended against charges of "pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
" coming from the nationalist press. Adevărul did however back similar charges against young novelist Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, who had a previous conflict with Teodorescu-Branişte, and whom Doctor Ygrec called "erotomania
Erotomania
Erotomania is a type of delusion in which the affected person believes that another person, usually a stranger or famous person, is in love with him or her. The illness often occurs during psychosis, especially in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar mania...
c".
1937 ban and recovery
Adevărul and Dimineaţa, together with Lupta, were suppressed in 1937, when the fascist National Christian PartyNational Christian Party
The National Christian Party was a Romanian political party, the product of a union between Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League; a prominent member of the party was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic...
of Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
, successor to the LANC and rival of the Iron Guard, took over government. This was primarily an antisemitic measure among several racial discrimination laws adopted with the consent of Carol II, the increasingly authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
monarch, and officially credited the notion according to which both venues were "Jewish". The decision to close down the publications was accompanied by a nationalization
Nationalization in Romania
The nationalization of the means of production was a measure taken by Romania’s new Communist authorities in order to lay the foundation of socialism. The act that allowed this measure to take place was Law 119, adopted by the Great National Assembly on June 11, 1948...
of their assets, which reportedly included a large part of Iosif Berman's negatives
Negative (photography)
In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
. In one of the paper's last issues, Teodorescu-Branişte warned against the identification of democracy "within the limits of constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
" with Bolshevism
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
, which he argued had been a traditional tactic of the newspaper's adversaries. Writing in his diary during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Brănişteanu stated his opinion that the ban coincided with "the emergence of barbarity". This referred to the bloody competition between Carol and his Iron Guard rivals, to the Goga cabinet's downfall, and to the establishment of a three successive wartime dictatorships
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
: Carol II's National Renaissance Front
National Renaissance Front
The National Renaissance Front was a fascist Romanian political party created by King Carol II in 1938 as the single monopoly party of government following his decision to ban all other political parties and suspend the 1923 Constitution, and the passing of the 1938 Constitution of Romania...
, the Iron Guard's National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
, and the authoritarian rule of Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
.
During its episodic rise to power, the Iron Guard mapped out its revenge against people associated with Adevărul, dividing its former staff into three categories: "kikes", "traitors", and "minions". Nichifor Crainic, who served as Minister of Propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
under both the National Legionary State and Antonescu, took pride in his own campaign against "Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
" in the press, and, speaking at the 1941 anniversary of his tribune Gândirea
Gândirea
Gândirea , known during its early years as Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială , was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine.- Overview :Founded by Cezar Petrescu and D. I...
, referred to Goga's 1937 action against Adevărul and the others as a "splendid act of justice". According to one story, the palatial office formerly belonging to Adevărul was still at the center of a conflict between underground communists and the Guard: during the Legionary Rebellion
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
of January 1941, the PCR attempted to set it on fire and then blame the arson on the fascists, but this plan was thwarted by press photographer Nicolae Ionescu.
Both Adevărul and Dimineaţa were restored on April 13, 1946, two years since the August 1944 Coup
King Michael's Coup
King Michael's Coup refers to the coup d'etat led by King Michael of Romania in 1944 against the pro-Nazi Romanian faction of Ion Antonescu, after the Axis front in Northeastern Romania collapsed under the Soviet offensive.-The coup:...
ended Romania's alliance with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
by bringing down Antonescu. The new editorial staff was led by the aging newspaperman Brănişteanu and the new collective owner was the joint stock company Sărindar S. A. The daily did not have its headquarters in Sărindar (which was allocated to the Luceafărul Printing House), but remained in the same general area, on Matei Millo Street and later on Brezoianu Street. In the first issue of its new series, Adevărul carried Brănişteanu's promise of pursuing the same path as Mille, and was accompanied by a reprint of Mille's political testament. Brănişteanu's article stated: "We did not and will not belong to any person, to any government, to any party." The series coincided with a spell of pluralism contested by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's occupation of Romania
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
, the steady communization of stately affairs, and political moves to create a communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. Brănişteanu noted these developments in his debut editorial of 1946, with a positive spin: "We ought to be blind not to have admitted that, in these new times, new men must step and do step to the leadership. We do not shy away from saying that, in general lines, our views meet with those of socialist democracy
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
, for the preparation of which we have been struggling our entire lives and which is about to be set up here, as well as in most parts of the European continent, after being fulfilled in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
."
Barbu Brănişteanu died in December 1947, just days before the Kingdom was replaced with a pro-Soviet people's republic
People's Democracy
People's Democracy was a political organisation that, while supporting the campaign for civil rights for Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, stated that such rights could only be achieved through the establishment of a socialist republic for all of Ireland...
in which the dominant force was the PCR. The gazette celebrated the political transition, publishing the official communique proclaiming the republic, and commenting on it: "A new face of Romanian history has begun [sic] yesterday. What follows is the Romanian state, which today, as well as tomorrow, will require everyone's disciplined and concentrated work." Honored with a front-page obituary
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
, Brănişteanu was succeeded by H. Soreanu, who led Adevărul for the following two years.
Communist censorship
In stages after that date, Adevărul was affected by communist censorshipCensorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
: according to historian Cristian Vasile, while generally infused with "official propaganda", the paper overall failed in effecting "the transformation requested by the [new] regime." Its content grew more politicized, offering praise to Soviet and Communist party initiatives such as the five-year plans
Five-year plans of Romania
The Five-Year Plans of Romania were economic development projects in Communist Romania, largely inspired by the Soviet model. Starting from 1951, there were 8 five-year plans.-Origins:...
, the encouragement and spread of atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and the promotion of Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
. Nevertheless, it continued to publish more traditional articles, including reportage pieces by F. Brunea-Fox and texts by poet Demostene Botez, as well as the regular columns Carnetul nostru ("Our Notebook"), Cronica evenimentelor externe ("The Chronicle of Foreign Events"), Cronica muzicală ("The Musical Chronicle"), Glose politice ("Political Glosses"), Ultima oră ("Latest News"), and the cartoon section Chestia zilei ("The Daily Issue"). Another satirical section, titled Tablete ("Tablets") and contributed by Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, existed between 1947 and 1948; it came to an abrupt end when Arghezi was banned, having been singled out for his "decadent
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
" poetry in Sorin Toma's ideological column for Scînteia
Scînteia
Scînteia was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history...
, the main communist mouthpiece (see Socialist realism in Romania
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
). In early 1948, Adevărul was also hosting some of the few independently voiced theater chronicles of the day, including a subversive contribution from the self-exiled author Monica Lovinescu
Monica Lovinescu
Monica Lovinescu was a Romanian essayist, short story writer, literary critic, translator, and journalist, noted for her activities as an opponent of the Romanian Communist regime. She published several works under the pseudonyms Monique Saint-Come and Claude Pascal. She is the daughter of...
, where she indirectly referred to communism as Kafkaesque experimentation.
In early 1951, at a time when the communist regime closed down all autonomous press venues, Adevărul was itself taken out of print. It announced the matter to its readers on March 31, 1951, in its final 18,039th issue, stating: "the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
has set up a new press, emerging from the new development of society: a press for the masses, read and written by millions. [It] expresses the tendencies and higher level of socialist culture; it debates on a daily basis the problems of ideology, of social and political theory, of science and technology, in connection with the preoccupations, the struggles and the victories in the field of labor, intertwined with the vast issues posed by the effort of socialist construction. The mission of Adevĕrul newspaper is over." Cristian Vasile notes that the "official explanation" for suppressing Adevărul was "ridiculous and unconvincing." Indication that the closure occurred unexpectedly also comes from Adevăruls failure to cancel its subscriptions in advance.
1989 reestablishment and support for the FSN
A daily paper with the name Adevărul was again set up in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 RevolutionRomanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, which had toppled the 50-year old communist regime and its single-party system
Single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
. The publication, which is housed by Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of Casa Presei Libere...
, is often described as a direct successor to the PCR organ Scînteia (rival of the 1940s Adevărul). Two intermediary issues were published during the actual revolutionary events, on December 23 and 24 respectively, under the title Scînteia Poporului ("The People's Spark"), which, while still displaying the old communist symbolism, published appeals issued by the provisional post-communist
Post-Communism
Post-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentary...
leadership forum, the National Salvation Front (FSN). As one of its first measures, the new editorial board dismissed members of the staff who were discredited for having openly supported the last communist ruler, Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
, replacing them with journalists sympathetic to the FSN. Soon after Ceauşescu's execution, the gazette began serializing Red Horizons, a volume of recollections exposing the defunct regime, authored by Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc. He is now a United States citizen, a writer, and a columnist....
, a defector
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection was a point of controversy during the Cold War. After World War II, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe...
and former spy chief. At the time, it circulated the claim, supported by the FSN, that Ceauşescu's repression of the popular revolt had killed as many as 60,000 people, which was a 60-fold increase of the actual death toll.
Edited after its resurgence by the pro-FSN poet and translator Darie Novăceanu, Adevărul became the dominant left-wing newspaper of post-communist Romania
History of Romania since 1989
- 1989 revolution :1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara against the eviction of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power....
. In parallel, Dimineaţa was itself revived, and, although independent from Adevărul, was also a FSN mouthpiece. Their main right-wing rival was another former Communist Party venue, România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....
, which openly reproached on the FSN that it was monopolizing power, and which identified itself with liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and pluralism. Reflecting back on the early 1990s, Southampton Institute researcher David Berry argued: "the ideological forces associated with the previous Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
regime were pitted against a much smaller and disparate oppositional group. This latter group was associated with România Liberă that loosely represented the voice of liberalism and [...] clearly lost the war. This was a battle of ideas and the old forces of Romanian communism used the new press framework, through Adevărul, to discredit opposition forces." In 1990, both papers reputedly sold around 1 million copies each day, a pattern attributed to "news deprivation" under communism, and believed by Berry to be "a phenomenal figure in comparison to any leading Western nation
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
".
Târgu Mureş conflict and 1990 Mineriad
In this context, Adevărul advertised that its main purpose was the dissemination of "nothing but the truth", of "exact information". The paper however stood out for promoting nationalistNationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
and authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
concepts, which Berry has associated with the survival of previous national communist
National communism
The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
themes in FSN discourse. Such theses acquired particularly controversial representations during the violent Târgu Mureş riots
Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mures
Târgu Mureş is a town in Romania with an ethnically mixed population that was almost equally distributed between Romanians and Hungarians after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. In March 1990, short-lived, but violent clashes occurred there between the two ethnic groups in the...
of March 1990. Backing the official view according to which the ethnic Hungarian community
Hungarians in Romania
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....
was organizing itself in separatist
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
struggle, it dedicated space to articles targeting the opposition Democratic Union of Hungarians
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....
(UDMR). Initially, Berry notes, Adevărul reported claims of extremist Hungarians in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
committing vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
against national monuments while acknowledging that the UDMR was not endorsing such acts, but slowly became a tribune for encouraging ethnic Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
to take action, exclusively presenting its public with politicized and unmitigated information provided by the official agency Rompres
ROMPRES
-History:The agency was founded with the name AGERPRES, standing for "Romanian Press Agency" After 1989 the agency changed its name to ROMPRES ....
and by the Romanian ultra-nationalist group Vatra Românească. Its editorials, often based on rumors, included negative portrayals of Hungarians, methods described by Berry as "extremely xenophobic
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
", "unethical
Journalism ethics and standards
Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. Historically and currently, this subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional "code of ethics" or the "canons of journalism"...
" and forms of "political manipulation".
Adevărul displayed constant hostility toward the Golaniad
Golaniad
The Golaniad was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest....
protests in Bucharest, which ranged for much of early 1990, and expressed praise for the Mineriad
Mineriad
See also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...
of June 13–15, 1990, during which miners from the Jiu Valley
Jiu Valley
The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...
, instigated by the official discourse, entered Bucharest and put a violent stop to the opposition's demonstrations. The gazette repeatedly called for a Romanian Police
Romanian Police
The Romanian Police is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.-Duties:The Romanian Police are responsible for:...
operation to forcefully evict the demonstrators, whom it identified with "filth" and "promiscuity". It also depicted the Golaniad as a major conspiracy
Conspiracy (political)
In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
against legitimate government, directed by neofascist and Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
groups, and amounting to a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
. Together with the FSN's Azi
Azi (Romanian newspaper)
Azi is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest....
, it publicized news of the June 13 events, during which pro-government workers at the IMGB heavy machinery works attempted to force out the crowds, describing their actions as justified by supposed student violence against Police forces.
After the protesters' return and during the subsequent miner-led clampdown, which it portrayed as a peaceful operation, Adevărul was among the Casa Presei Libere publications left untouched by the miners' raid on the building. During the following days, it published material praising the miners for reestablishing order, while alleging that "their presence was absolutely necessary to annihilate the violence of extremist forces". It also popularized false rumors according to which, during their attacks on the opposition National Peasant
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
and National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
party headquarters, the miners had uncovered weapons, counterfeit money
Counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government to resemble some official form of currency closely enough that it may be confused for genuine currency. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery. Counterfeiting is probably...
and illegal drugs
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
. In addition to main editor Novăceanu, whose articles referred to the clampdown as effected by "our miners", journalists who praised the Mineriad include Sergiu Andon (future Conservative Party
Conservative Party (Romania)
The Conservative Party of Romania is a political party formed in 1991, after the fall of Communism, under the name of the Romanian Humanist Party . From 2005 until December 3, 2006, the party was a junior member of the ruling coalition...
politician), Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu is a Romanian journalist, essayist and short-story writer. Author of science fiction stories during his youth, he has also hosted talk shows for various television stations, and had contributions as a literary critic and translator...
and Corina Drăgotescu.
Radical nationalism was observed in several Adevărul articles throughout the FSN period. In one piece of March 22, days after the main Hungarian-Romanian clashes, writer Romulus Vulpescu described the danger of "irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
" and "Horthyism
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
", alleging that local Hungarians had assassinated several Romanian peasants. Vulpescu and other contributors repeatedly made unverifiable claims according to which Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
was directly involved in stirring resentments, allegations also made by the state-controlled television network
Romanian television
Romanian television may refer to:* Communications media in Romania* Televiziunea Română, TVR, the national television network* List of Romanian language television channels...
. According to Romanian-born historian Radu Ioanid, in 1990-1991 Adevărul and its opponent Dreptatea
Dreptatea
Dreptatea was a Romanian newspaper that appeared between 17 October 1927 and 17 July 1947, as a newspaper of the National Peasants' Party. It was re-founded on February 5, 1990 as a publication of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party ....
of the anti-FSN National Peasants' Party both "joined the anti-Semitic barrage" of the period, a trend he believes was instigated by the publications of Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
, Iosif Constantin Drăgan
Iosif Constantin Dragan
Iosif Constantin Drăgan was a Romanian and Italian businessman, writer and historian. In 2005, he was the second wealthiest Romanian, according to the Romanian financial magazine Capital, having a wealth estimated at $850 million...
and Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that he plagiarized in his novel Incognito and for the anti-Semitic campaigns he initiated in the...
(all of them affiliated with România Mare magazine). Ioanid singled out Adevărul and its collaborator Cristian Tudor Popescu, who, during the July 1991 commemoration of the Iaşi pogrom
Iasi pogrom
The Iaşi pogrom or Jassy pogrom of June 27, 1941 was one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history, launched by governmental forces in the Romanian city of Iaşi against its Jewish population, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews, according to Romanian authorities.-Background:]During...
, attacked writer Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
and other Holocaust researchers for having evidenced Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
's complicity in extermination. In the early 1990s, Adevărul also stood out for its intense republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
which opposed the return of communist-deposed King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Michael I
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
, and published polemical pieces such as the Fir-ai al naibii, majestate ("Curse You, Your Majesty", written by Andon).
The privatization years
A scandal surfaced in spring 1991, when Adevărul was caught up in the first wave of privatizationPrivatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
, following a decision of the FSN's Petre Roman
Petre Roman
Petre Roman is a Romanian politician and a former Prime Minister of Romania. He served from 1989 to 1991, when his government was overthrown by the intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma. Roman is a member of the Club of Madrid, grouping 66 democratic former heads of state and government...
cabinet. A conflict reportedly opposed Novăceanu to Popescu: the latter suspected a secret understanding between Roman and the Adevărul leadership, providing for a facade privatization and transferring financial control to FSN politicians. This controversy ended only when Premier Roman appointed Novăceanu as Romanian Ambassador to Spain. The Scînteia patrimony was afterward divided between Adevărul and the state. In parallel, seeking to consolidate their publications' independence, the writing staff set up a joint stock company
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
, Adevărul Holding
Adevarul Holding
Adevărul Holding is a media joint stock company owned by Romanian businessman and politician Dinu Patriciu and named after is main publication, the daily newspaper Adevărul. It currently owns newspapers and magazines, and has a television license...
. Known initially as SC Adevărul SA, it had its initial public offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
distributed through the "MEBO method" of employee buyout
Buyout
A buyout, in finance, is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" control of the target company....
s. As a result, the journalists owned 60% and other employees the other 40%, with a clause forbidding them from selling to outside investors (in effect until 2002). Subsequent trading within the holding and seasoned equity offering
Seasoned equity offering
A Seasoned equity offering or secondary equity offering is a new equity issue by an already publicly-traded company. Secondary offerings may involve shares sold by existing shareholders , new shares or both....
s provided the editorial staff with a controlling stock of approx. 30%. As part of its business profile, the post-privatization Adevărul also earned criticism for not differentiating between articles and commercial content, publishing covert advertisements as opinion pieces. Also at that stage, allegations surfaced that, through a firm known as SC Colosal Import-Export, members of the editorial staff, including Andon, Viorel Sălăgean and Dumitru Tinu, were handling all the larger advertising revenues.
Occasionally, nationalist claims produced by Adevărul parted with the policies of FSN's Social Democratic
Social Democratic Party (Romania)
The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...
(PSD) successors, particularly in matters relating to social issues and Romania's economy
Economy of Romania
Romania has a developing, upper-middle income market economy, the 11th largest in the European Union by total nominal GDP and the 8th largest based on purchasing power parity...
. In June 1993, the gazette attacked the PSD's Nicolae Văcăroiu
Nicolae Vacaroiu
Nicolae Văcăroiu is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party, who served as Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the 1989 Revolution he worked at the Committee for State Planning, together with Theodor Stolojan....
cabinet for its privatization measures, claiming that the sale of the Petromin shipping firm to Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
investors was done "at a pittance", and calling for the executive to resign. This campaign, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
political scientist Judy Batt notes, had a "xenophobic tinge", and its appeal "has shaken confidence in the government and eroded its capacity for action." After the post-Revolution authorities announced their intention to join the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and accepted a monitoring process, the newspaper hosted the first in a long series of Euroskeptic
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
pieces, which generally objected to outside intervention, particularly in the area of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, and were often signed by columnists Popescu and Bogdan Chireac. British academic and observer Tom Gallagher
Thomas Gerard Gallagher
-Education and career:Tom Gallagher is holder of the chair of ethnic peace and conflict at the department of peace studies, University of Bradford. Ironically it has been alleged that he has been known to vocally support the INLA, who carried out a twenty-four year campaign of terror including the...
attributes this attitude to claims of "injured patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
". In parallel, Adevărul displayed a strong socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
agenda. During those years, the paper published numerous pieces covering Romanian society, which were primarily noted for their sensationalist and alarmist
Culture of fear
Culture of fear is a term used by certain scholars, writers, journalists and politicians who believe that some in society incite fear in the general public to achieve political goals, for example......
headlines, such as a claim, published in 1997, that "a quarter of Romania's children live in institutions". In early 1996, Adevărul was noted for criticizing local non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
s promoting women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, alleging that, although financed by the European Union's Phare
Phare
The Phare programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union....
fund, they only functioned on paper (an attitude which itself earned criticism for sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
). More debates ensued in March 1998, when Cristian Tudor Popescu published an Adevărul article under the title Femeia nu e om ("The Woman Is Not a Human Being", or "The Woman Is Not a Man"), where he alleged that women cannot think. Another controversy of the mid 1990s also involved Popescu, criticized for his Adevărul articles which, claiming freedom of thought
Freedom of thought
Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints....
as their motivation, supported the cause of convicted French Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
Roger Garaudy
Roger Garaudy
Roger Garaudy or Ragaa Garaudy is a French philosopher. Formerly a prominent communist author, he has converted to Islam and written several books which have been controversial due to his anti-Zionist positions and denial of the Holocaust.-Early life, politics and religion:Born to Catholic and...
.
A political scandal touched Adevărul some time after the 1996 legislative election
Romanian legislative election, 1996
Legislative elections were held in Romania on 3 November 1996, together with the Presidential election. The elections were won by the Romanian Democratic Convention, an alliance of liberal, Christian Democratic and green parties. This marked the first time that the Party of Social Democracy was out...
, when the Social Democrats' rivals from the Democratic Convention
Romanian Democratic Convention
The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several political parties of Romania, active from early 1992 until 2000....
, Democratic Party
Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)
The Democratic Liberal Party is a populist, centre-right party in Romania. It was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the Democratic Party was part of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance...
and other opposition groups formed government. This came after the new Foreign Minister, Adrian Severin
Adrian Severin
Adrian Severin is a Romanian politician and Member of the European Parliament.Adrian Severin started his politics career under the Communist rule, as Instructor at Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, the university for Romanian Communist cadres...
, publicly stated being in possession of a list comprising the names of several leading Romanian journalists who were agents of the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Federal Security Service. Even though Severin's failure to evidence the claim resulted in his resignation, the list fueled much speculation, including rumors that Dumitru Tinu, by then one of the main Adevărul editors, was one of the people in question. The dispute prolonged itself over the following decade, particularly after Tinu's name was again used by President
President of Romania
The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...
Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
and former Foreign Intelligence Service director Ioan Talpeş
Ioan Talpes
Ioan Talpeș is a Romanian Army general, military historian and politician. He served as head of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service from 1992 to 1997. In 1997-8, Talpeș served as Ambassador to Bulgaria and acted as an advisor to President Ion Iliescu from 1999 to 2000...
in their recollections of the Severin incident.
Late 1990s emancipation
Various commentators have noted a rise in the newspaper's informative quality later in the 1990s. Among them is British politician and MEPMember of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
Emma Nicholson
Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is a British politician. Formerly the Conservative then Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon she is a now life peer, and a former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for South East England.-Early...
, who followed Romania's political scene throughout the decade. She singled out Adevărul and Romania's other major central daily, Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...
, as "high quality publications". Writing in 2002, Romanian media researcher Alex Ulmanu rated Adevărul "the most successful, and arguably the best Romanian daily". Romanian sociologist and political commentator Marian Petcu sees its enduring popularity as the consequence of a "head start", with Adevărul having inherited from Scînteia "the facilities, the subscribers, the raw materials, the headquarters, the superstructure, the network of local correspondents etc." He also notes that the newer publication had produced a "less warlike and less anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
" discourse than those of other dailies, and therefore appealing to a wider audience. By 2004, Petcu argues, Adevărul maintained a "balance between a reconciliatory but well documented discourse, on the one hand, and, on the other, the observance of journalistic norms and resistance to the temptation to make compromises."
According to surveys carried out around 2004, the paper was being perceived as the most credible title. Its circulation reached a reported 150,000 copies a day, making it one of at most four local dailies to print more than 100,000, and maintaining its lead over all local newspapers, directly above Evenimentul Zilei and Libertatea
Libertatea
Libertatea is a Romanian tabloid newspaper published in Bucharest. Libertatea was the first newspaper that appeared after Romanian Revolution, the first edition was in 22 December 1989 at midday, first newspaper announcing the people the fact the president dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu fled the...
. Other data for 2003 places that number at approx. 200,000, roughly equal to that of Evenimentul Zilei, and ranking above Libertatea and Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...
(with 140,000 and 120,000 copies respectively). According to Evenimentul Zilei, the circulation of Adevărul actually dropped from 200,000 in 1998-2000 to 100,000 in the post-2001 era, whereas external auditors revealed that, in 2003, it was the fifth most-read newspaper (after Libertatea, Evenimentul Zilei, Pro Sport and Gazeta Sporturilor
Gazeta Sporturilor
Gazeta Sporturilor is a daily newspaper in Romania, and the country's largest and most read sports-related publication...
). Alongside Evenimentul Zilei and Pro Sport, Adevărul was also one of the first Romanian periodicals to take an interest in putting out an online edition
Online newspaper
An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical....
and adopting innovations in web design
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
, making its site the third most popular of its kind in 2002 (the year of its relaunch).
Both Tinu and Popescu helped consolidate their publication's reputation through their numerous television appearances, coming to be seen as leaders of opinion. According to Petcu, the public's confidence was what made Adevărul "autonomous from the political power", while Nicholson attributes such progress to Popescu, whom she sees as "a journalistic icon". At the end of the transition, Petcu assessed the new Adevărul agenda as one in favor of social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
, social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
and "fast privatization that would avoid massive unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
". At the time, the paper's panelists also threw their support behind European integration, a change in political orientation illustrated by Chireac's talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
on Pro TV
Pro TV
Launched in December 1995, Pro TV reaches almost 99% of Romania’s 21.5 million people and has 48% of its broadcast schedule comprising locally-produced programs...
station, titled Pro Vest ("Pro West"). In 2003, Popescu was a co-founder and, after România Liberă editor Petre Mihai Băcanu withdrew from the race, first president of the Romanian Press Club, a professional association whose mission was setting ethical standards in journalism.
Despite such gestures, the paper continued to withstand accusations that it was itself unprofessional. Ulmanu argued that both Adevărul and its smaller competitor Curentul were examples of press striving to be considered "high quality", but noted: "However, one can still find biased, unprofessional or sensationalist reporting in these papers." Disputes also surround its political agenda of the 2000-2004 period. Like the other mainstream publications, Adevărul supported the PSD-backed Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....
in the presidential election runoff of late 2000
Romanian presidential election, 2000
These are the results of the Romanian presidential election of November 26, run-off held on December 10, 2000:-First round:-Run-off:...
, against the ultra-nationalist rival of the Greater Romania Party
Greater Romania Party
The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....
, Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
. In this context, it notably published a piece questioning Tudor's self-identification as a firm adherent of Romanian Orthodoxy
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, suggesting that he presented himself to foreigners as a Baptist Union
Baptist Union of Romania
The Baptist Union of Romania is an alliance of Baptist churches for cooperative ministry in Romania. Since independent churches have no legal standing in Romania, the Baptist Union also provides a mediatorial relationship between churches and government.The first modern-era Baptists in Romania...
adherent. Opinions vary about the gazette's relationship with the PSD after the 2000 legislative election
Romanian legislative election, 2000
Legislative elections where be held in Romania on November 26, 2000, together with the Presidential election. The Greater Romania Party made big gains, as did the PDSR, which became the ruling party. The formerly governing Romanian Democratic Convention lost all its seats and was shortly...
, which consecrated the party's return in government: while political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
emphasizes its criticism of the Adrian Năstase
Adrian Nastase
Adrian Năstase is a Romanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.He competed as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance candidate Traian Băsescu.He was...
cabinet, journalist and academic Manuela Preoteasa discusses PSD's "pressure on the media", and includes Adevărul among venues which, "apparently critical toward PSD [...] avoided criticizing some of the party leaders". In Marian Petcu's view, Adevărul adopted "a discourse stressing the need for prudence and balance, alternated with criticism of the political power whenever the latter failed to take firm decisions."
Changes in management
Adevărul also consolidated financial transparency, when the new editorial board, extended to include newcomers Chireac, Lelia Munteanu and Adrian UrsuAdrian Ursu
Adrian Ursu is a Romanian journalist. Born in Slatina, he graduated from the Literature Faculty of the University of Bucharest in 1994, having been expelled from its Journalism Faculty the previous year. His journalistic work began in 1992, when he joined the staff of Adevărul newspaper...
, took over the role of supervisor in matters of advertising. In 2001-2003, Tinu purchased most stock owned by his colleagues, and came to own over 70% of the total shares, of which some 10% were purchased from Popescu in exchange for 140,000 United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
s. Suspicions arose that Tinu was being secretly financed in this effort by the Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian businessman Fathi Taher, already known for purchasing much advertisement space in Adevărul during the mid 1990s, and receiving additional support from PSD politician and entrepreneur Viorel Hrebenciuc
Viorel Hrebenciuc
Viorel Hrebenciuc is a Romanian statistician and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party , he has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Bacău County since 2000.-Biography:...
. According to a 2003 analysis in Ziarul Financiar
Ziarul Financiar
Ziarul Financiar is a daily financial newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania. Aside from business information, it features sections focusing on careers and properties, as well as a special Sunday newspaper...
, Adevărul was considered for purchase by the French group Hachette
Hachette (publishing)
Hachette Livre, , is a French publisher, the flagship imprint of Lagardère Publishing. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as a bookshop and publishing company. Hachette has its headquarters in the 15th arrondissement of Paris....
, and later by a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
conglomerate.
In 2003, Tinu died in a car crash. The circumstances of his death, especially the technical details and the alleged financial benefits for third-parties, raised much speculation that he had been in fact murdered. His estate, including his majority stock, was inherited by his daughter, Ana-Maria, but her ownership was contested by the Iucinu family (his secret mistress and her son by Tinu). Their interests were defended in court by former panelist Andon, owner of some 2% of the stock. The editorial board's opposition to the administrative reshuffling proposed by Ana-Maria Tinu also created a lengthy conflict, and prevented her from assuming administrative control of the paper. It was alleged that, at the time of his death, Tinu was considering rebranding
Rebranding
Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....
and restructuring, and that, in 2004, the newspaper's profits were only 9% of its total income.
A major crisis took place in 2005, when Popescu resigned from the board and was followed by 50 of his colleagues, all of whom set up a new daily, Gândul
Gândul
Gândul is a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was founded in May 2005 by Mircea Dinescu, who used to write a daily editorial called "Vorba lu' Dinescu", and Cristian Tudor Popescu, who was also the editor-in-chief until January 2008. Its initial circulation was about 52,000...
. In one of his last Adevărul pieces, titled Atacul guzganului rozaliu ("The Attack of the Pink Rat"), Popescu accused Hrebenciuc of having imposed his control on the newspaper during the local elections of 2004
Romanian local election, 2004
Local elections where held in Romania in late May 2004, and a runoff for mayors in early June 2004In late May where elected:* all the villages, communes, cities, and municipal cluncils , and the Sectors Local Councils of Bucharest...
, when he allegedly pressured journalists not to criticize the PSD Mayor of Bacău
Bacau
Bacău is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. It covers a land surface of 43 km², and, as of January 1, 2009, has an estimated population of 177,087. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, and on the Bistriţa River...
, Dumitru Sechelariu. Also according to Popescu, Hrebenciuc had urged him and his colleagues to feature more negative and less positive coverage of the PSD rival and Democratic Party
Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)
The Democratic Liberal Party is a populist, centre-right party in Romania. It was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the Democratic Party was part of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance...
candidate Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...
during the presidential suffrage of November 2004
Romanian presidential election, 2004
A presidential election was held in Romania on November 28, 2004. 12 candidates competed for the office. As no candidate won more than 50% of the votes, a run-off was held on December 12, 2004, between the two leading candidates: prime minister Adrian Năstase of the ruling Social Democratic Party...
. Atacul guzganului rozaliu also alleged that Ana-Maria Tinu had an understanding with the PSD politician, and her rebranding of Adevărul was Hrebenciuc's attempt to undermine its political independence.
Although Gândul attracted a large following during a number of months, turning a profit in the first month, Adevărul survived the shock. A similar crisis with similar outcomes had affected its rival Evenimentul Zilei in 2004, when the policies of new owners Ringier
Ringier
Ringier AG is one of the largest media corporations in Switzerland founded in Zofingen and based in Zürich. It publishes several newspapers and magazines in both German and French...
forced the resignation of editor Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu is a Romanian journalist, best known as the editor of Evenimentul Zilei daily. He is known in the United States for an editorial he wrote entitled Cîntarea Americii regarding the American response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.Nistorescu graduated from the...
and the migration of many staff members toward Cotidianul. Nicholson attributes the survival in both cases to the value of a well-established brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
. In 2006, Ana-Maria Tinu sold her share of Adevărul Holding to one of Romania's richest entrepreneurs, the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
politician Dinu Patriciu
Dinu Patriciu
Dan Costache "Dinu" Patriciu , is a billionaire businessman and entrepreneur with a long standing involvement in real estate. In 1998 he led an investor buyout of the previously state-owned Romanian oil company, Rompetrol...
, her move hotly contested by Tinu's son Andrei Iucinu, who looked set to gain a third of the stock and trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ownership upon the end of a trial. Patriciu's decisions, including his appointment of a new managerial team, were resisted by Corina Drăgotescu, who resigned and left the newspaper in November 2006. External auditors reported that, between summer 2006 and summer 2007, at a moment linked by American scholar Peter Gross with a rise in influence for the major market players and a loss of overall credibility, Adevărul was the only newspaper not to have incurred a drastic loss in readership (Gândul itself lost an estimated 26,000).
According to data made available by the Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulations, the newspaper's circulation for 2008 ranged between a minimum monthly average of 37,248 copies in January and a maximum one of 109,442 in December. In 2009, the minimum was at 81,388 and the maximum at 150,061. A 2009 article in the rival newspaper Financiarul suggested that Adevărul was being neglected by Patriciu, who invested more in the holding (allegedly in hopes of undermining a trademark which he risked losing, while elevating the publications not affected by Iucinu's claim). However, by 2011, even as Romania's print media experienced major setbacks, the paper expanded in content and the holding enlarged its portfolio. In May 2011, Patriciu transferred 99.92% of Adevărul Holding stocks to another firm in his portfolio, Fast Europe Media N.V. (registered in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
). Patriciu himself justified the move as an opener of the Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...
an markets, but analysts have also seen in this an attempt to capitalize on the Dutch corporate tax
Corporate Tax in the Netherlands
A Dutch company is subject to 25.5% corporate tax on its worldwide profits. Certain items of income, however, are exempt from tax and certain costs are non-deductible.-Worldwide profits:...
.
Post-2000 editorial policy and controversies
Despite the changes in attitude and management, some of the post-2000 editions of Adevărul remained controversial for their nationalist claims. This was primarily the case of statements it made in regard to the Romani minorityRoma minority in Romania
The Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...
, over which it has been repeatedly accused of antiziganism
Antiziganism
Antiziganism or Anti-Romanyism is hostility, prejudice or racism directed at the Romani people, also known as Gypsies.As an endogamous culture with a tendency to practise self-segregation, the Romanis have generally resisted assimilation with the indigenous communities of whichever countries they...
. In early 2002, the gazette reacted strongly against an advertisement for a soccer match between the Romanian squad
Romania national football team
The Romania national football team is the national football team of Romania and is controlled by the Romanian Football Federation.Romania is one of only four national teams, the other three being Brazil, France, and Belgium, that took part in the first three World Cups.However, after that...
and the French national team
France national football team
The France national football team represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation , the governing body of football in France, and competes as a member of UEFA, which encompasses the countries of Europe...
, where the former was being portrayed as a violinist. Adevărul saw this as an attempt to insult Romanians by associating them with Romani music, concluding: "Our French 'brothers' never stop offending us, and they seem to enjoy treating us like gypsies". A November 2008 article, which claimed to be based on a reportage piece first published in El País, depicted Romani Romanians as a leading demographic group within Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
's organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
networks. The article was condemned by civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
observers, who uncovered that Adevărul had modified and editorialized the original piece, which actually spoke of the Romanian immigrant population
Romanians in Spain
Romanians in Spain form the largest group of foreigners in the country, having surpassed Moroccans in 2007. , they made up 14.2% of Spain's total foreign population of 5,598,691 people...
, without any mention of ethnicity. An analysis made by researchers Isabela Merilă and Michaela Praisler found that, in contrast to Evenimentul Zilei, Adevărul had a socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
bias in reporting on the rise of Romanian hip hop
Romanian hip hop
Romanian hip hop is the hip hop music style that was developed in Romania around 1992. Most notable Romanian hip hop artists come from Bucharest, Romania's capital and largest city. The genre is currently growing in popularity in Europe...
, which it related to negative social phenomena (violence, drug use), and against which it favored a degree of censorship.
Colecţia Adevărul, the post-2008 book collection issued by Adevărul has itself been the subject of controversies. Two trials were opened on charges of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, after the collection issued works by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
and Vintilă Corbul, allegedly without respecting the authorship rights
Intellectual property in Romania
Intellectual property law in Romania has developed significantly in the period since the Romanian Revolution of 1989 because of the need to enforce various regional and international treaties and agreements, such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights , the...
of original translators. Another such conflict was sparked in April 2009, opposing Colecţia Adevărul to Biblioteca pentru toţi ("Everyman's Library") similar book series issued in tandem by the rival daily Jurnalul Naţional
Jurnalul National
Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....
and Editura Litera company. This came after Adevărul reprinted George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
's Enigma Otiliei ahead of Biblioteca pentru toţi, despite the latter having earlier announced its intention to publish the volume, and reportedly without obtaining permission from copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
holders. The Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
's George Călinescu Institute, which owns the rights to Călinescu's books, joined Editura Litera in initiating a lawsuit against Adevărul. In its first reply to the allegations, Adevărul accused Jurnalul Naţional itself of having taken over the Biblioteca pentru toţi trademark, previously owned by Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva
Editura Minerva is one of the largest publishing houses in Romania. Located in Bucharest, it is known, among other things, for publishing classic Romanian literature, children's books, and scientific books.-External links:**...
, without obtaining the legal rights to its use. Its representatives also spoke out against Antena 1, a television station which, like Jurnalul Naţional, is owned by Intact Group
Intact (group of companies)
INTACT is the first Romanian media group based entirely on a private local business. A considerable number of the most important brands in the audio-visual and print industry have been launched under this umbrella since its first product, Intact Printing House was established in 1991.- Television...
, accusing it of incorrectly reporting on the issue.
In the months leading up to the 2009 presidential election
Romanian presidential election, 2009
The first round of 2009 Romanian presidential elections was held in Romania on 22 November and a run-off round between Traian Băsescu and Mircea Geoană was held on 6 December 2009. Although most exit polls favored Geoană in the runoff, the authorities declared Băsescu the narrow victor with 50.33%...
, Adevărul launched a special nation-wide advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
, announcing that it was reducing to a minimum its coverage of the political scene and would not host campaign ads
Campaign advertising
'In politics, campaign advertising is the use of an advertising campaign through newspapers, radio commercials, television commercials, etc.) to influence the decisions made for and by groups. These ads are designed by political consultants and the political campaign staff...
, directly appealing to people who were declaring themselves disgusted with the election process. The initiative was covered by journalist Gabriel Giurgiu in the cultural magazine Dilema Veche
Dilema Veche
Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...
, which is also part of the Adevărul Holding. Giurgiu's article was a mixed review: it argued that the reaction was understandable, but "regrettable", because it carried the risk of glamorizing voter fatigue
Voter fatigue
In politics, voter fatigue is the apathy that the electorate can experience when they are required to vote too often.It is often used as a criticism of the direct democracy system, in which voters are constantly asked to decide on policy via referenda...
and depriving society of "a necessary burden." Hotnews.ro
Hotnews.ro
Hotnews.ro is a Romanian news site. It was founded in October 1999 by a group of financial journalists under the name revistapresei.ro and contained articles from outside sources put together as a press review. It was rebranded HotNews.ro in 2005...
owner and columnist Dan Tapalagă placed this stance in connection to Dinu Patriciu's publicized adversity toward incumbent President Băsescu. In his view, Patriciu stood alongside Intact Group owner Dan Voiculescu
Dan Voiculescu
Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....
and Realitatea-Caţavencu
Realitatea-Catavencu
The Realitatea-Caţavencu trust is a Romanian group of media companies, owned by Sorin-Ovidiu Vântu . It was founded when Vântu bought the Caţavencu media group, who, as they declared, at that time it was unable do develop further by itself...
's Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
Sorin Ovidiu Vântu
Sorin Ovidiu Vântu is a Romanian businessman and owner of the Realitatea-Caţavencu media company. In 2008 he was considered the 5th richest man in Romania with an estimated net worth between 800 and 850 million euros....
as one of the "media moguls" working to prevent Băsescu' reelection. Alluding to the newspaper's promotional offers of cartoon classics on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and popular novels, Tapalagă concluded: "[Adevărul] readers must be forcefully kept away from politics, perhaps kept busy with Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
. Forcefully saturated of politics, the citizen in Patriciu's dreams gobbles up the personal governments concocted together with Voiculescu and Vântu, reads approximate literature and watches animated cartoons."
However, similar criticism of Adevărul was also voiced from within Realitatea-Caţavencu. Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu
Cornel Nistorescu is a Romanian journalist, best known as the editor of Evenimentul Zilei daily. He is known in the United States for an editorial he wrote entitled Cîntarea Americii regarding the American response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.Nistorescu graduated from the...
, the new editor of Cotidianul, called the promotion "lobotomizing
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
", and, contrary to Tapalagă, suggested that it had been induced by President Băsescu, to whom he attributed the power of ordering Patriciu's arrest on allegations of white-collar crime
White-collar crime
Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...
: "It is as if Traian Băsescu had sent him the message: write one more line about me, and you'll be spending another week in the big house!" Another Cotidianul contributor, Costi Rogozanu, referred to the Adevărul message as "a strange manipulation" and "a dangerous invitation to carelessness", noting that Romanian society was becoming divided between openly partisan media outlets and venues which avoided any discussion about politics.
Under new management, Adevărul acquired a new core group of columnists, including Patriciu himself. The owner's opinion pieces illustrate his commitment to libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
and the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
, which have little echo inside his own National Liberal Party. The other authors stood for a wide range of opinions, including anti-Patriciu stances. In February 2011, Adevărul even hosted an extended politial debate between Patriciu and another columnist, the former cabinet minister and Băsescu advisor Andrei Pleşu
Andrei Plesu
Andrei Gabriel Pleşu is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.- Biography :Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu , he spent much of his early youth in the country side...
.
Additionally, the newspaper became focused on revisiting the history of Romanian communism, and ran exposes on the Ceauşescu family
Ceausescu family
Nicolae Ceauşescu, who led Romania from 1965 to 1989, had a large family, several members of which wielded influence in Communist Romania. Below are given outlines of his immediate family members' lives, with links to those who have separate articles about them....
. This interest (seen by Rogozanu as obsessive) was criticized as sensationalist, particularly for claiming that the former dictator had been a youthful homosexual.
External links
"Adevărul", entry in Cronologia della letteratura rumena moderna (1780-1914) database, at the University of FlorenceUniversity of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
's Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures