Major Romanian media outlets cashed EUR 4 mln from parties during last political crisis

During the political crisis in October and November 2021, the two major Romanian parties, the Liberals (PNL) and the Social Democrats (PSD), paid almost RON 20 mln (EUR 4 mln) to various media outlets, according to G4media.ro, quoting a survey carried out by Europa Libera.

In the first 11 months of 2021, PNL and PSD together exceeded a combined budget of EUR 10 mln - money spent on contracts with media outlets.

Headed by Florin Citu since September, PNL disclosed the money spent during the first nine months of the year when the party was led by Ludovic Orban. Thus, PNL paid EUR 100,000 a month to the company that manages the Realitatea Plus TV station and EUR 75,000 a month to B1 TV in the first seven months of 2021, when Orban led the party.

Another EUR 84,000 was paid for two months to Stalex PR & Media Events. Europa Libera claims that these funds went to Romania TV, gandul.info and cancan.ro.

PNL also paid 5,000 euros a month to Newsweek Romania, according to Europa Libera, and about EUR 4,000 a month to Facebook.

Other amounts, according to the article published by Cristian Andrei of Europa Libera, were paid by PNL in the first seven months of 2021 to HB Media Advertising Company (Dan Bucura), EUR 3,000 per month, RNews Press Agency - PS news (January - June, EUR 5,000 per month), GKM Global Publishing (RON 20,000 per month), GKM Global WEB (RON 15,000 per month), Truezone (RON 4,165 per month), Macondo Gabo Press (RON 16,500 per month), Soma Social (in collaboration with stiripesurse.ro, EUR 3,000 per month).

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