TV broadcasters required to inform audiences when airing pre-1989 films

Under a recommendation approved today by the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), TV broadcasters are required to inform the audience when airing Romanian cinematographic productions shot before 1989, Agerpres reports.

The proposal belongs to former CNA president Rasvan Popescu, and was discussed on Tuesday by the Council after the government's Secretariat General - the Department for Parliament liaison requested an opinion on a legislative proposal to amend and supplement the Audiovisual Law.

"We had on the table a draft authored by the Save Romania Union, which was intended to shed some light on films made before '89 by tagging them on-screen with a 'C' - standing for 'censorship'. We considered the formula to be slightly excessive and therefore issued an opinion with observations and next decided to come up with a solution ourselves, according to our powers, so to speak. We then worked out a recommendation to warn the audience about these productions and somehow try to put them in the context of that time," Popescu explained.

He added that the recommendation is intended "especially for today's youth".

"They do not know - they don't have where to get this info from - what it is like to live in a country without freedom of expression, where censorship and propaganda falsified reality, so that for example the peasants' land dispossession through collectivization was presented as a positive fact. The same goes for the nationalization of the factories, whereas the anti-communist mountain resistance was seen as an act of national betrayal. These are just a few examples that can be found in the cinematography of the time," said Rasvan Popescu.

According to CNA's recommendation, if they air Romanian movies made before '89, the broadcasters have the choice to either precede the screening with debate shows where guests knowledgeable of the historical and cultural context of the said production discuss it, or to inform the public by displaying a static and legible mention: 'Film made during the communist period, when its public release was conditioned by a censorship visa', or 'Film made during the communist period, when censorship and state propaganda were standard practice".

The analysis and specialized critique of these Romanian cinematographic productions can be scheduled before or after their broadcasting, and the choice of the appropriate formula remains at the discretion of the TV station, depending on each film, CNA's recommendation states.