Bribery, cheating and blackmail: Romanian media

The study draws attention to several cases of bribery and blackmail in which Romanian journalists or quasi-journalists were involved in 1887-1944. The lack of exact juridical regulations regarding this profession allowed crimes which increased in number when, e.g., the general public was informed that organisations (e.g., The Union of Journalists of Bucharest) were collecting funds for philanthropic activities or for buildings new offices. There were cases in which these acts of cheating or blackmail went beyond Romanian borders, and consequently the image of the profession was badly affected. It should be noted that the officials supported the blackmail process to ruin a journalists’ or even an editorial board’s image too.