Romanian legislators dismiss board of state – owned TV station TVR, soon after manager steps down

The general manager of Romanian state – owned television TVR stepped down from the helm of the media company just before the country's Parliament dismissed the TVR board in its Tuesday session (December 10). Claudiu Saftoiu, who has been the manager of TVR for the last year, was hoping to save the board via his move, and had asked the Parliament to approve the company's activity report, thus saving it from an 'unsolvable situation'. The Parliament however decided to reject TVR's activity report, with 262 votes against, 21 for and 10 abstentions. When the Parliament rejects the TV station's report, the board is automatically dismissed, by law. New nominations for the 13-seat board are pending, and the Parliament will again have to validate the new board members. Saftoiu, a former journalist and former head of Romania's Foreign Information Service, and former presidential counsellor for Traian Basescu, has lead a wide restructuring program within TVR, which also included lay-offs. Despite having been criticized for some of the measures, his leadership was supported by the Government. The latest change under his command was re-branding the TV station TVR 3 as an 'agrarian' TV station, targeting rural communities across the country. Romanian media have already started to trade different names for Saftoiu's replacement, including members of the dismissed board Valentin Nicolau and Lucia Hossu Longin, or Rares Bogdan from Realitatea TV. editor@romania-insider.com