Tracing the unseen in post-communist Romanian television

During the 1989 Romanian Revolution, the state television fell in the spotlight of the fight for a new democratic order. After decades of serving as the main mechanism of disinformation and control, the public and immediate change of sides during the revolutionary events of the public television, transformed the institution into a measurement unit for the consequent democratic evolution of Romania. The few minutes in which a nation witnessed the news presenter,Teodor Brates changed his speech from ‘the terrorist riots are under control’ to ‘we have won, the dictatorship has fallen’, appeared to mark the beginning of a new era. They also marked the beginning of the televised revolution, an event that complemented the street revolution in complex ways.

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