Queue at a polling station at a 2024 poll. Photo: Inquam Photos / George Calin
Should or not listen to what those who have, at this moment, a different belief than ours say?
One of the beauties of democracy is that we can contradict ourselves without polemizing and that we can polemize without judging ourselves. I recommend an article in which Cristian Pantazi is in disagreement with the work of some colleagues from Hotnews and an article signed by me.
The journalist writes in G4Media that he has a “little disappointment” related to our editorial. He believes that “to give the grandstand daily to Simion's acolyte who tries to explain the inexplicable is useless.”
Yes, here we think differently. We do not believe that we “give something from us” or that we do a favor when we listen to people, especially those with power over the lives of others, and when we relate. We are in the public space and this information belong to the public, we do not have, the journalists, in the property, to decide whether we give them or not.
Piperea, Peiu and the other interviewees are the elected part of an important part of the Romanians. That I personally do not like many of the things they support, this does not make their arguments illegitimate.
As, to criticize certain movements of Nicușor Dan's team, when hundreds of posts on Tiktok who supported him were already given down, we find it necessary. I have seen so many cases when the Pro European candidate wandered his way, in the campaign or quite quickly after he became president.
Only when we ask ourselves difficult questions, including nine ourselves, do we reach a complete picture of what is happening. If it turns into dogma, the liberal judgment risks becoming itself illiberal. We are a country where a recent study Atlasintel shows that 67% of people do not think that democracy works well in Romania. Here are the voters of Nicușor Dan, and those of George Simion and maybe the solution is not to stop the dialogue.
We decided this attitude in the newsroom and we chose to try to keep our objectivity. We opted not to confuse the most powerful voices with the most legitimate and not radicalize our positions of fear that we will be judged.
On Monday morning, for example, we will have to do a job that can only be solved if we work together as a country. We have to raise the heavy meal in the middle of the room, some on one side and the others on the other side, to release the space and start the work, that the wedding will have been completed. But for this we need to recognize, as many, preferably, the result of the elections.
We recommend the article that criticizes us, it is interesting, you can read it here.
