During the Communist era it was second to Scânteia as a Romanian daily concentrating more on local issues than on national and international news and was the only Romanian newspaper allowed to publish full-page advertisement sections.
In 1990, shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 but before the rise of independent television in Romania, its circulation briefly rose as high as 1.5 million. [1] (http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_02/uk/dossier/txt12.htm) However, those numbers rapidly fell off and in 2000 the paper was purchased by the German company Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). Echoing complaints of journalists at rival daily Evenimentul Zilei, which is owned by the Swiss press trust Ringier, România Liberă journalists complained in September 2004 that foreign owners are telling them them to lessen political coverage and tone down their negative reporting of the government. Their concern has been echoed by a variety of organizations including the Open Society Foundation. [2] (http://business-romania.blogspot.com/2004/09/press-freedom-in-romania.html) Management has denied the charges. [3] (http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=53194&LangID=1)
In the case of România Liberă, this protest took the form of a statement in the edition of September 13, 2004, in which the newspaper's editors protested interference by WAZ. They accused their German ownership of having no concern for the public interest, and accused Klaus Overbeck in particular of trying to dictate to them what they could print in the newspaper. At the time of purchase WAZ promised to confine themselves to the business side of the newspaper and stay out of editorial matters. [4] (http://www.paginiromanesti.com/2004_09/Romania/Romania%20libera%20sub%20asaltul%20Puterii%20de%20la%20Bucuresti.html)
External links
România Liberă online (http://www.romanialibera.com/) (in Romanian)
Romania’s principal seaports are Constanţa, on the Black Sea, and Galaţi and Brăila, neighboring cities on the lower Danube; Giurgiu, which has pipeline connections to the oil fields of Ploieşti, is an important river port.
Romania has two major airlines, TAROM (Romanian Air Transport), which is owned by the state and serves as the national carrier, and LAR (Romanian Airlines), which was established as an independent airline in 1990.
Romania’s democratic constitution adopted in 1991 (and amended in 2003) provides for freedom of the press—a sharp departure from the strict governmental control exercised during the communist era.
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