President Basescu says state television should be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch

After the dismissal of Alexandru Lazescu from the helm of TVR and the appointment of Radu Calin Cristea as the Acting Director General of the state owned TV stations, the Romanian president Traian Basescu (in picture) has made public new ideas to change the institution.

The president said on Wednesday night that TVR should be disbanded and rebuilt from scratch, adding that this TV station has become “a business”. He gave an example of small scale, low budget “television that works,” most likely referring to OTV, which is known as apartment TV because of the channel's small studio space. “TVR should be disbanded and re-established on another basis. It cannot work like this. You see television produced in two rooms, in operation and more dynamic than the TVR and without any debt. Sure, nobody says that we should not have a state television, but television has become a business," said Basescu, who added that he had raised the matter with Lazescu. He also mentioned that TVR has become a family business, and that despite having 3,500 employees, it still buys many TV shows produced by others. “I think that here we have only one solution: close down the state television, appoint a manager to make it a public service, according to the requirements of law, because public television needs culture. It should also broadcast the European football championship in full, even if we didn’t qualify, football is a show. Broadcast the Olympic Games in full because I do not see why I wouldn’t watch the 100 meters, where there is a phenomenonal competitor. Why should I watch only fractions of the Olympics?” the President said. He went on: “I think this institution should be disbanded and reinstalled on new bases, because of how it closed commercial contracts and contracts with employees. “ Asked about the amount of EUR 280 millions that represents the costs of TVR and Radio Romania for 2011 according to their statistics, the president said that it “is enormous and unjustified”. Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com