A buboi that doesn't break anymore. In order not to say publicly how much money they put into the press to buy news, PSD and PNL leaders say they are threatened with confidentiality clauses by media owners

Friday, October 24, 100 days have passed since the last request sent to PSD and PNL about the money paid to the press. Breaking the law has become commonplace for Ilie Bolojan and Sorin Grindeanu. No response came, although the legal deadline was 30 days at most. The defiance of the two parties continues the harmful phase of Nicu and Marcel. The politicians, however, even blame the patrons of the media for the situation, but they do nothing more than throw a hot potato to discredit the media even more.

Why does attention go primarily to PSD and PNL, and not to USR or AUR when we talk about money for the press? It's a question I get asked a lot.

Because in the last five years, the two parties bought their positive image with public money worth hundreds of millions of lei. They had no rival in Romania. It is normal to start with those who have spent the most and have held power the longest.

USR does not have even 10% of PNL or PSD contracts with the press, the party put the money from the subsidy into advertising on Facebook or Google, much easier to identify and marked by social networks.

AUR did not spend the money from the subsidy in the first years, and later directed significant amounts to Facebook, Google or Tik-Tok or printed its own publications. In the case of AUR, there is a network of sites coordinated by the party, but the level of paid amounts cannot be compared to PSD and PNL.

The parties of Grindeanu and Bolojan remain, without discussion, based on the figures of the last five years, the main political investors in the media. Their money competes with the big companies that advertise in the online area. Therefore, it is natural for them to be the first to be asked and to provide the answers.

It is a democratic way to demonstrate to the citizens who send them money every month that they understand notions such as integrity or freedom of the press.

Who orders the news? Why did Ciolacu lie for years on end

How does the system work, who orders the news? The parties receive money from the state budget in the form of a subsidy. PSD and PNL have concluded contracts with agencies, which buy space on their behalf on various sites. The agencies are, in fact, at the disposal of the parties. Attention, the money does not go to television stations outside of election campaigns, but only to television websites or online publications.

They, after publishing the ordered articles, send a report to the agency to collect their money. The agency forwards the report to the party to see what it bought. In this system, the parties order the articles and know exactly where the money went and which articles were published. The agency has only an intermediary role, not a decision-making one.

Why do PSD and PNL claim that they don't know who they gave the money to? Because they lie and want to hide from public opinion how they paid to be praised. Marcel Ciolacu lied for years that he didn't know anything, although Bogdan Popescu, his trusted man, controlled everything.

The companies through which PSD orders the items are from Buzău or are controlled by people close to the party. Vertigo Events SRL, Concept Media Management, The Plan B Concept or Stative Media are companies that have collected important commissions from PSD in recent years.

Ciolacu said something to those around him. He wanted to wash his hands. That he does not want to give the information because it will start a scandal among the patrons in the press. Let the patrons of Antena3 not see if he gave more money to the RTV affiliate site. Digi24 should not know what money he sends to others. And so on. Don't let Bogdan Chireac from DCNews, who takes money from the party, ministries, and town halls, know how much money Radu Budeanu collects at Gândul.

He ensured his peace of mind by paying for the articles, but also by not revealing who he gave the money to. And the party either swallowed the story, or many did not care. What is clear: the party won control of part of the media, some media patrons won.

Who are the big losers in the secret contract scheme

Who lost? The society, the citizens who pay taxes and the money with which Marcel Ciolacu played. And they also lost honest reporters, who did not write news to order. They are put in the same pot as those who closed their eyes and accepted the political order.

What role did Ciolacu actually play? He was the creator of an evil system, through which public money reaches the press through an intermediary, without the articles that constantly praised his activity being marked as political advertising. He was the political figure who increased the party subsidy to a record level in order to have even more money at his disposal.

His model was probably inspired by the actions of Adrian Năstase who wanted to completely control the press in the early 2000s.

The Bode-Ciucă tandem copied the recipe. Unlike PSD, significant sums were directed to the Digi24 and Realitatea Plus sites. And in this case, Ciucă and Bode kept the expenses secret.

What did the sites do, did they mark the political advertising? The fact that a party promotes a public policy is not to be condemned. What is to be condemned is that the articles were not always marked as political advertising, that the money given to the sites also influenced the agenda of some television stations, as has been seen so many times with the naked eye, and there was zero transparency on the part of the political parties.

There are years in a row, between 2020 and 2024, when television websites collected sums in the order of millions of euros and did not mark the articles as political advertising. It was a financial sham and a terrible violation of any journalistic norms. He closed his eyes, and the money of the politicians dictated.

A sick structure was built, with harmful influences on the democratic system.

Ciolacu and Ciucă have disappeared. Why didn't the buboi break?

Ilie Bolojan was elected full president of the PNL at the July 12 Congress. Sorin Grindeanu became interim president of the PSD at the end of May and will have full rights after the November 7 Congress.

Unfortunately, Bolojan and Grindeanu continue the policy of secret contracts with the press. A kind of omerta, no one wants to betray.

The prime minister even threatened to walk out of a press conference if he was bombarded with more questions about the money given to the media. Strange, especially since the amounts were not paid during his term. The first vice-president of the PNL, Ciprian Ciucu, ran away from a press conference, being bothered that he was being asked about the party's refusal to present the contracts to the press.

Bolojan and Ciucu had the chance to break the buboi, perform a healing operation, but they preferred to put a bandage and tell everyone that everything is ok. They hid the mess under the mat.

Sorin Grindeanu, former first vice-president in the Ciolacu team, argued in 2022 that all contracts with the press must be public. In the meantime, having become the boss in Kiseleff, he forgot what he said. Like any politician, Grindeanu turned 180 degrees without flinching. With the same stupidity that Marcel Ciolacu had, he refuses to provide any information about how PSD spent public money. Grindeanu also claims that if he published the contracts with the press, the patrons would be upset. Plus, he feels that through this disclosure he would betray Marcel Ciolacu, the one he now supports at the head of the Buzău County Council.

Do you understand? For PSD and PNL leaders, the party is above the truth, breaking the law is above the public interest.

“I didn't look at the contracts, I don't know them, but I was very clearly informed that there are those confidentiality clauses that, mind you, were not imposed by the party, but by the editors”, declared on Wednesday, October 22, the first vice-president of the PNL, Ciprian Ciucu.

The PNL leader thus blames the editors for the contracts with confidentiality clauses and says that they do not provide the requested information because “it would harm the party”.

“The party has some huge financial problems, we would expose the party to some huge payments that we cannot carry”, added Ciucu, without specifying for a second that with this positioning he violates the law 544/2001 on free access to information of public interest.

Ciucu is serene and does not feel ashamed when he is reminded that he is breaking the law.

What is disturbing about Ciprian Ciucu's attitude? Former NGO-ist, former president of the National Integrity Council, Ciucu also lies often. He stated on Wednesday that the PNL response to the July 16 request had been sent. A first false information thrown into the public space. The PNL Communication Department did not send any response to the request.

The first vice-president of the PNL said that if an answer was not sent, he would send one the next day so that everything would be very clear. He guaranteed with his own word. He hasn't sent any more replies.

On other occasions, on Facebook, he wrote that the journalist who sent the request for money for the press received 11 responses. Another fake promoted by Ciprian Ciucu in the public space.

Bolojan and Grindeanu cover the mess

PSD and PNL are equal in the story of money for the press. They paid in secret, refuse to declassify the contracts and provide the requested information. Bolojan's reform did not reach his own party, but was contaminated by the governing colleagues. There are some fans of Ilie Bolojan who claim that he did not have time to respond.

You only need five minutes to present the contracts of 2021, 2022, 203, they are in the party database.

Everything is to want, and Ilie Bolojan does not have this political will.

The interim president of the PSD, Sorin Grindeanu, promised on October 28, in a press conference, that he will present all the contracts with the press after he is elected party president on November 7. But PSD has a long history of promises. Marcel Ciolacu stated in an April 2022 interview that he will declassify all contracts with the press and will not conclude any other contracts with a confidentiality clause. Ciolacu did not keep his word, and the allocations to beautify his image increased during his mandate.

Transparency comes from Brussels

The big parties in Romania have failed yet another test: transparency in spending public money. As usual, maybe the solution comes from Brussels and the European Commission, the institution much reviled by extremists.

Regulation 2024/900, which regulates political advertising in the EU, will oblige everyone to state who is paying for political advertising and to be marked as such. Romania was not able to apply these rules on its own initiative. Or the Romanian politicians will invent a mechanism through which they can cheat the European Regulation.

The magistrates also have a negative role, those who drag out the 544/2001 lawsuits for years. Think you want to know about the contracts of Marcel Ciolacu or Nicolae Ciucă in 2024. The courts will give a verdict, probably in 2029, when no one will be interested in the answer.

Do you think this solves the problem? Wrong. Do you know what the parties do with the verdict of the courts? They throw it in the trash and pay a small fine.

Romania's toxic contracts must stop. I've been saying it for five years already.

The bosses in the press and the heads of the parties could decide to present all the contracts to the public within ten days. No cause of privacy is stronger than the law and the public interest. But is there political will for such a thing? From what I've seen over the past few years, I can definitely say no.

The main culprits are the political leaders, who try to shift attention to the issue of “blackmailing” the patrons in the media to make them appear innocent. Another bluff.

The parties come on December 7 and ask for the vote again. They will spend a lot of money on the campaign and make pompous speeches about the public interest. But what if parties stopped receiving subsidies if they did not provide 100% transparency? Why do taxpayers have to be fair to the parties, and the parties make a mockery of any form of transparency and laugh in everyone's face by pharaonic saying: “We have confidential contracts on public money”.