Cartels of silence hinder serious magazines

Romanian sociologist Sorin Ionita asks in the daily Evenimentul Zilei why Romania lacks a serious weekly magazine like Newsweek or Der Spiegel: "Such a magazine wouldn't survive here in Romania because both the media makers and the public are fans of a different journalistic model. This consists of a great hotchpotch as a result of which Romania has more media channels (printed and spoken) per capita than other EU countries - and of course more than the market can sustain. From the outset these media trusts were aimed at gobbling up money. They never yielded any profit … but gave the media owners influence or protection or were used as political-economic instruments. With the mass of providers who operate according to this model it is difficult for anyone to storm the market with a new product and establish a public opinion based on different rules. The cartels of silence are difficult to destroy."

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