Deutsche Welle and Radio France International signed a memorandum of cooperation in Bucharest, laying the foundations of an “informational shield” and joint journalistic projects for Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
Marie-Christine Saragosse, President of France Médias Monde, and Barbara Massing, President of DW
DW and RFI move to a joint office in Romania. The managements of the two public media institutions from Germany and France signed, at the Bucharest headquarters of Radio France International, a memorandum of strategic collaboration through which, in addition to the logistical support that DW correspondents in Romania will receive from their colleagues, the foundations of future joint journalistic projects are laid.
A first step in this direction was achieved on Tuesday, 02.12.2025, when Marie-Christine Saragosse, the president-general director of France Médias Monde, and Barbara Massing, the general director of Deutsche Welle, gave a tandem interview to the reporters of the two media institutions in which they explained the approach launched in Bucharest, strategically called “informational shield”. DW's Romanian correspondents will benefit from the existing infrastructure and technical assistance in the media hub where RFI operates in Bucharest.
Cornel Ion, director of RFI Romania, leads the Bucharest Hub
For several months, the Romanian-language editorial office of Radio France International has been producing the Moldova Zoom show, created to give additional editorial weight to the attention given to the Republic of Moldova. The publicity effort was completed by the collaboration with DW for digital video productions.
RFI has frequencies in Romania and one in Chisinau. “Germany told us: if you are there, we can also help. And”, explains the coordinator of France Medias Monde, “we carried out a big informational offensive in Romanian. It worked very well and that gave us the idea to install together”.
The alarm signal
The visit of the two general directors to Bucharest comes one year after the canceled presidential elections in Romania. “For us it is very, very important to provide reliable and trustworthy information, based on facts and not lies. Throughout Europe we find more and more lies. We know very well that this was also the case in Romania last year, and that was a kind of shock for the whole of Europe. At that moment we realized that democracy is completely threatened and under pressure in liberal countries as well”, said Barbara Massing at the official signing of the collaboration protocol between the two institutions.
In the Republic of Moldova, “we saw that the Russian propaganda, using all the means it has, with all the trolls, tried intensely to exert influence, to spread false information. It is important for us to also support the civil society there. We are already very present in Moldova through the DW Academy, and this is an additional possibility that, through our journalistic offer, we can provide information based on facts”, Massing pointed out, in the interview given to DW and RFI.
The presidential elections in Moldova and Romania “were an alarm signal for the whole of Europe”, recalls Marie-Christine Saragosse. “We've seen what happened here, and we know it foreshadows what will happen elsewhere. We will not stand idly by in the face of a threat to what we've built since World War II in terms of freedom and democracy.” The Europeans, says the president of France Medias Monde, “are perhaps the last area in the world that believes so much in this democratic model, that wants it and defends it with such determination”.
Journalism that some want to make invisible
“The informational shield project that we had in mind together with Deutsche Welle is taking shape through what we managed to do in Moldova and through the fact that, symbolically, for the first time, the teams of RFI Romania and Deutsche Welle in the Romanian language will operate in the same spaces”, appreciates Saragosse.
“We try that through our reports there is a wide offer, so that the people of Moldova can form their own image and make their own decisions”, emphasized the general director of DW, Barbara Massing. “Moldova is a candidate for joining the European Union and this is a sufficient reason for us to try, by our means, to bring clarity and make real information available”.
This, Massing added, given that “Journalism in Moldova is under very, very strong pressure, because the country is, in general, very poor. There are difficulties in financing independent journalism. We want to contribute by providing independent reports, based on facts, so that stories surface that some do not want to see, that a part of politics does not want seen, especially the Russian influence, both from Russia and from the separatist region of Transnistria, where Russian soldiers are stationed, does not want to see them exposed in public space”.
Franco-German model and support
Moldova is “a country on which the wave of disinformation has been violent. What we offer is precisely journalism. We want to offer the viewers, the users, the means by which they can form their own opinion, to freely take the decisions they want to make. This is what we tried to do, together, in Moldova, on the occasion of the last elections, for a country that wants to join Europe”, Saragosse added. It's about “defending independent, free, verified, credible, balanced information. A professional information that opposes manipulation of citizens, disinformation and represents the first democratic bastion. That's it. Simply that.”
In addition, for Barbara Massing it is “very important to show that Franco-German friendship is always at the center of Europe, at the center of the European Union, to form a space of credibility, a democratic space. We want to build, but also contribute for our partners in the European Union. We want to show that we want to support and strengthen democracies and, consequently, accompany them on their way against disinformation and in the direction of democracy, in the long term.”
Cristian Stefanescu – DW
