Before 1989, homosexuality was a taboo topic for Romanian mass media. That was somewhat understandable. In a uniform and egalitarian society, information was doctored, so that there would be no trace of diversity. The official public discourse outlined a 'perfect' society, without disabled persons, unemployed, and, naturally, without homosexuals.

The situation, however, changed dramatically in the post-communist period, when issue of homosexuality started to be tackled, at first rarely and rather shyly, then more and more frequently and from different points of view. If until that point homosexuality was publicly non-existent, fully hushed up, the many newspapers and magazines that appeared after 1989, all eager to draw the readers' attention, have lifted the veil of silence that lay over homosexuality. This is the reason why the numerous articles on this issue have become a staple in the Romanian  mass media.

This new approach does not mean that homosexuality is always presented in an informed manner. Due to the social stigma attached to belonging to a sexual minority, a rather small number of homosexuals and lesbians come out (...) even when they do, gays come out just in small circles of individuals: in their group of close friends, to their family, and less frequently to work colleagues or acquaintances, and even more rarely or never fully, to the public in general. This situation led to a vicious cycle: the social stigma frequently forces homosexuals to keep a public low profile when it comes to their sexual orientation. On the other hand, because of the small number of persons who actually do come out openly and admit to their sexual orientation, the public opinion most frequently hasn't got yet the opportunity to build an informed opinion regarding homosexuality

This confusion on this issue is also maintained to a certain extent by the media, who often chose to emphasise the sensational side of this form of sexuality and forgot clear objective information.

It is also true that neither is the legislative situation in Romania designed to encourage the open admission of this particular aspect of one's private sexual identity. According to Article 200 paragraph 1, Penal Code,  which is still in force as of Nov. 14, 1996, 'Same sex relations taking place in public or resulting in a public scandal, shall be punished by one to five years imprisonment'. The term 'public' has a highly encompassing definitioni  it can practically mean anything, while for the  term 'public scandal' there is no legal definition at all in the Romanian legislation. Paragraph 5 of the same article states: 'Enticing or seducing a person to practise same sex relations, as well as propaganda, association or other forms of proselytizing with the same aim shall be punished by one to five years' imprisonment.'. The last paragraph forbids gays and lesbians in defending their rights, thus limiting their freedom of expression and association, guaranteed by the Constitution to all Romanian citizens. The new Government project regarding the amendment and completion of the Penal Code, presently on the agenda of the Senate, regarding to the annulment of this article, has not yet been discussed by the legal and the human rights commissions of the higher chamber of the Parliament.

This is the unfavourable legislative background within which ACCEPT Association (Bucharest Acceptance Group) was created. ACCEPT is a human rights organisation whose stated mission is to provide information and educate the Romanian society on the issue of homosexuality and to promote and defend human of gays and lesbians in Romania, envisioning a society where sexual orientation can be only a simple characteristic of the human being.

The purpose of the organisation is to fight for a normal life, freedom of expression and equal opportunities for all gays and lesbians in Romania. Within the following analysis, we use the press clippings collected by this organisation during the past two years.

How often and in which situations does the Romanian media cover homosexuality-related issues?

Press coverage of homosexuality and related topics have become common place in the Romanian media. Generally, there is a tendency on the part of the media to loosen up when it comes to this subject, a by-way from a tension creating sensationalism to presenting the cases as they are. Taking into account the potential and the responsibility of the media to shape and inform its readers, we feel that it is desirable that this tendency continues.

From the beginning of 1998, ACCEPT has recorded 106 articles on this topic in the main newspapers - 14 in January, 5 in February, 16 in March, 41 in April and 30 in May.

By analysing the frequency and the manner in which homosexuality is presented by the main daily newspapers, we can assert that a fairly balanced reflection of this topic can be found in the newspaper Ziua (The Day - a.t.), Cronica Româna (The Romanian Chronicle - a.t.) and Curierul National (The National Courier -a.t.). In these newspapers most entries are news flashes, pro and con opinions, and the authors abstain from personal  commentary.

Romania Libera (The Free Romania -a.t.) covers this topic less often, clearly considering it not a priority. A sensationalistic oriented approach can be found frequently in Evenimentul Zilei (The Day's Event -a.t.) and National (The National -a.t.), these two publications also being the dailies where negative stereotypes are most often used.

The daily newspaper in which we observed a change in attitude towards same sex relations is Libertatea (The Liberty -a.t.). Until the end of 1997, Libertatea was sensationalism oriented in its news flashes and presentations, as well as in the 'shocking' photos it printed. In 1998, however, the approach changed to mainly neutral, while in the 'About sex without a veil' column, the editorialist goes as far as to quote studies and statistics.

Those who clearly understand that homosexuality is only a matter of private life and that neither the state nor the public opinion can govern this aspect of an individual's existence in society, are the journalists of the weekly magazines 22 and Dilema (The Dilemma -a.t.).

The large number of articles written in the last three months on this subject prior to this analysis can be attributed, to a certain extent to Amnesty International's campaign on behalf  of Mariana Cetiner, the only lesbian imprisoned in Romania under article 200 (March 1998), the visit of President Constantinescu to Holland, where he was confronted by a group of gays and lesbians who brought up the subject of the punishments that sexual minorities in Romania are faced with (March 1998), the ACCEPT press conference during which the association presented its draft law for the modification of  the Penal Code, Chapter III, Title II  -  "Sex related violations of the law", the Amnesty International report regarding the human rights situation in Romania (April 1998), and the Government's proposal for the modification of the Penal Code and of the Criminal Procedure Code, submitted to the Parliament (May 1998).

Subjects of lesser importance also get significant attention: for instance, the piece of news that the commercial attaché of the Bulgarian Embassy in Budapest was murdered by a Romanian homosexual, was covered in April by six journals (National, Curierul National, Libertatea, Evenimentul Zilei, Ziua and Cotidianul). The fact that Israeli transsexual Dana International won the Eurovision song contest, caused such headlines as "Diva Dana is transsexual Dan!" - Cronica Româna, May 11, 1998) or "Spiting the ultra-orthodox Jews, the transsexual Dana International won the  'Eurovision '98 Trophy" (Evenimentul Zilei, May 11, 1998) - six articles being written only on this subject.

Frequently, however, the articles are inappropriate, lacking relevancy; the only reason for publishing this kind of articles is their "success" with the readers. "Children's play has turned European / Police has fined three families because their off-springs playfully pretended to be homosexuals", states Ziua of May 21, 1998; another article titled "Transsexual Cici dances in bars" was published in  Libertatea on May 6, while Evenimentul Zilei of April 1 published an article headlined  'Homosexual Onose crushed homeless Carabela  with a hammer'

Gay crime rate is always stressed upon, special attention being paid to acts of paedophilia: 'Adolescent girl was 'raped' by a female neighbour' (Libertatea, February 1998), "Article 200 in action/ the paedophile will stay in prison for 7 years'(Curierul National, January 29, 1998), "six homosexuals raped an 18 year old teenager' (Libertatea, January 19, 1998), "twenty-three children are terrorised  by 23 year old Gabriel Lungan, former swine farmer/Children from the Special Needs school in Babeni are undergoing outrageous perversions at the hand of a psycho caretaker'  (Ziua, July 28, 1997), "They raped them, they filmed them and then they murdered them/ At least five children are victims of a child abusers network who are selling morbid scenes', 'The homosexual brothel/live persons, drugs and dollars trafficking' (Tinerama, August 20, 1996).

It is true that there have been articles with no apparent connection with any real fact or current events. Their purpose of these articles, generally being only to inform, but they are so few and approach only certain aspects, thus usually failing to properly explain homosexuality. A positive example was an article in Elle magazine, titled 'They are here' in which the author tried to present this still delicate issue, objectively and  in a neutral manner. The article was generally well informed and presented a brief history of homosexuality, the social and legal situations of homosexuals, as well as the points of view of the non-governmental human rights organisations and brief interviews with several open gays. Unfortunately, few articles succeed in presenting homosexuality in a balanced and informed manner.

Is the Romanian mass media open on the issue of homosexuality?

Generally, Romanian mass media is still marked to a fairly high degree by public homophobia  The proof in this respect, is the unbalance between articles oriented on gay violations of the law and informative articles. It is true that no generalisations can be made regarding the degree to which the Romanian mass media is open toward this topic; that is not something we intend to do. The  newspapers' policy is sometimes in contradiction with the personal opinions of the journalists, opinions which appear even in newspapers and magazines which have not started out as homophobic publications.

However, not many Romanian journals are openly homophobic. Most frequently, this topic is being exploited for its "exotic and unusual nature" - whose causes we have explained earlier - and not always out of malice or due to a clear attitude of rejection towards homosexuality. Market success is the main reason for publishing a rather large number of homosexuality related articles. It is true that this cannot be regarded as beneficial because as a leader of opinion mass media should not fuel the stereotypes that exist and persist in the public opinion mentality.

It often happens that informative and unbiased articles, with no apparent anti-gay content, have intriguing and seemingly instigating headlines. Here are some relevant  examples: Evenimentul Zilei of  May 22, 1998 published the article: 'Mai bine batut în cap decât homosexual'('Better knocked in the head than to be gay') which tells the story of three inmates from the Craiova prison who hammered nails into their scalps as a protest against the prison's management decision to move them into separate cells. In the article the inmates stated that they are not gay; and apart from another ironical hint to the potential annulment of article 200, subsequent to which homosexuals will be able to 'mate legally', the article does not contain any other unfavourable comments regarding homosexuality. The title, however,  is not in concordance with the general attitude or content of the article. By the same token, the same newspaper publishes, in its May 8, 1995 issue, an article which presents the Government's draft law for the modification of the Penal Code. Even if the article presents several important elements, among which the regulations regarding the special minimum and maximum limits of imprisonment for insults, calumny, and offence to authority, restraining the detention period to 25 years at most for men over 60 and for women over 55, etc...  its title refers strictly to homosexuality: "According to the draft law proposal for the modification on the Penal Code adopted yesterday by the Government/ homosexuals will be able to fool around freely".

Evidently, neither of the above constitutes the rule. There are also several forceful, overtly homophobic articles. A good example is an editorial published in National (18-19.04.1998), entitled "The rights of the female goat", from which we quote: "Homosexuality is a nuisance that mankind dealt with in whichever way seemed best: with discretion, with wisdom and with personalised solutions. [...] Normal people have just as may intimate problems as homosexuals do. Still, they do not turn them into global issues, nor do they make them into public demonstrations in the Parliament." The author of the article, who complains about "the impudence of the gay movement leaders", disguise the core of the problem: in the case of homosexuals, the actual problems are not so much intimacy related, but rather related to social acceptance.

The same type is the article "The homosexuals - not affected by the raise in the price of fuel", published in Adevarul of March 8, 1998. The article lacks context and truth from several standpoints. Despite having been intended as an informative article, following the press conference organised by ACCEPT where it launched its own draft bill for the modification of the Penal Code, the article if full of biased personal comments of the author on the seriousness of the draft law proposal. ("their 'wonderful' legislative initiative"). The author continues with personal remarks regarding ACCEPT representatives at the press conference, and about  the motives for which the organisation believed this draft bill is  necessary.  Moreover, the information contained in the article was distorted and the many quotes inaccurate.

The stereotypes and their public promotion through mass media

We know that a stereotype is the result of a process starting with a generalisation. "Homosexuals are...", "homosexuals do...". In the end, the repetition of the generalisation leads to its public promotion. This does not mean that there isn't any truth in a stereotype. However, the label applied to a whole group that differs from the majority is rarely valid for the whole minority group; this leads to a situation in which the whole group suffers due to the inappropriate image of one of its minority subgroups.

The Romanian mass media tends to generalise, since it has been proved that generalisations make a strong impact on the readers. Evenimentul Zilei of May 19, 1998 offers the best example of this type article, titled: "The boys get busy; homosexual rapes in Arges". The journalist signing the article, besides presenting the act of rape as a violation of the law, also inserts a personal homophobic comment: 'Encouraged probably by the new initiatives in the Parliament, homosexuals come out".

The mass media, especially the written segment, makes frequent use of stereotypes when presenting stories related to same sex relationships; here are a few examples of such features:

"The myth" of the Euro-Atlantic integration is present in all media coverage of decriminalisation of same sex relationships.  This type of articles promote the hypotheses according to which, it is the only or the most important condition that Romania needs to meet, to the detriment of the Christian-Orthodox principles that guide the social life of the majority of Romanians. This stereotype is false and ultimately destructive. On the one hand the decriminalisation of same sex relations is just one of the many conditions and not the most important for the accession process - the proof being the fact that the special monitoring of Romania by the Council of Europe has ceased - and that Romania was nominated among the countries that are going to adhere to the European Union, despite the current presence of article 200 in the Penal Code. On the other hand, the need for transformation of Romania into a genuine democracy is not acknowledged as such; people tend to consider these changes as a requirement placed on them by Western Europe and not as a part of Romania's efforts to respect the fundamental international agreements and treaties on human rights and freedoms, and to insure a decent life to all its citizens, especially to groups who differ from the majority due to sexual orientation. This attitude propagated by mass media ultimately leads to blaming the minority groups for the reluctance and the slow pace of the integration into the European Union and NATO.

"In the 21st century, Romania will be homosexual or will not be in Europe?" is the title of an article published in Evenimentul Zilei on May 15th 1998. Despite the fact that the content of the article presents from an unbiased perspective the opinions of certain leaders of the Romanian Orthodox Church, as well as those of several politicians, it took one single personal comment by the author to reverse the initial objectivity of the article: "Soon we will not be allowed to be astonished when coming across people of the same sex are kissing passionately or engaging in foreplay on Calea Victoriei or in Cismigiu)". The weekly Academia Catavencu of May 20, 1998, in its characteristic style, perpetuates the same "myth": "... it looks like, with this draft law, (suggested by the Government - authors' note), the admission of Romania into the European Union and NATO has its behind secured - by homosexuals...naturally".

Paedophilia and the corruption of minors are frequently present especially in the newspapers and often associated with homosexuality to the degree that it is impossible to distinguish between the two.

The current mentality of the majority adheres to the point of view that homosexuals prefer "our" teenagers and minors. In some articles recently published the term paedophilia is not properly explained or understood, as referring  exclusively to an adults' preference for sexual relations with a child, regardless of gender  or of the sexual orientation of the partners, although paedophilia not being typical for same sex relations, or the fact that the percentage of homosexual paedophiles is not any higher than that of heterosexuals.

The article "The homosexuals and the inmates - the only concerns of Romania" published in Jurnalul National,  on April 23, 1998 offers a clear-cut example "...But when certain pederasts become aggressive, when their victims are mainly children, the law must have a strong say in it...". The author of an article in Evenimentul Zilei published on October 20, 1997, empathises with the aggression experienced by the entire guild: "Because two journalists turned their sexual advances down, homosexuals attacked the Cluj mass media... their pretext being, funnily enough, the fact that the press did not applaud gays who came to a conference held in Cluj with the obvious intention to recruit new partners ..."

Another frequent stereotype seen in the Romanian mass media, is brought up to argue in favour of maintaining certain repressive legal provisions when applied to same sex relations, is that the homosexuals are psychologically unbalanced and therefore,  violent and perverted: "...homosexuality, sado-masochism, the orgies with no boundaries are just a few of the many inventions meant to procure anomalous carnal pleasures" (Monitorul Expres). The author does probably not want to admit that  "carnal pleasures" are equally frequent in heterosexual relations and that at the end of the 20th century, the idea that human sexuality is past the approach that it is only a sole means of perpetuating of the species

On the side, a photo published in Libertatea on April 9 1997, on purpose mistakes the carnival atmosphere of the "Gay Pride" celebrations in the West, with a method of expressing or enacting vices: "Throughout the "Gay Pride" festival in Amsterdam, the pederasts paint themselves in silver and bronze and take turns in kissing each other".

The language

The language used, especially in the written media, when commenting on issues regarding homosexuality goes from being  openly aggressive to sarcastic: "The Peasant party representatives look with displeasure at gays" (Libertatea, May 20, 98), "homosexuals need to have a little more patience" (Ziua, May 10, 98), "În Romania democracy has not reached the bottom" (Jurnalul National, January 14, 98), "The homosexuals - not affected by the increase in fuel prices" (Adevarul, March 8, 98). Few are the cases when the language is neutral or lacks homophobic insinuations.

In certain cases, the journalist declares himself/herself so disgusted as to question the mere belonging of homosexuals to the human race, while in the same time choosing to forget that homosexuals are different from the others only by reason and not by the means employed in order to express affection: "When I hear talks about the rights of the homosexuals, I feel such pity for goats, and I can only think of the soldiers" (National, April 18-19, 98).

The compulsory nature of incriminating same sex relations is "justified" by the increase in visibility of homosexuals, failing to take into account the fact that the existence of homophobia - is due precisely to the lack of correct information on  what is homosexuality, and what is good in  maintaining  a minimal visibility of homosexuals in society. Here, too, the language employed reflects this prejudice: "The government has 'set free' lesbians and gays to express themselves" (Libertatea, May 8, 1998), "Romanian homosexuals come into the limelight" (Ziua, June 6, 1998), "...Homosexuals will be able to jump around freely" (Evenimentul Zilei, May 8, 1998)

Yet another terminology-related problem, and generally speaking language related problem, is the constant ignoring of lesbians and/or even the denial of their existence in the Romanian society. In the press the term homosexual refers only to gay men, lesbians being only mentioned as such only in the name of certain punishable acts: "...a young woman of 16, was terrorised by a lesbian (Evenimentul Zilei, February 27, 1998), "An adolescent girl has been 'raped' by a female neighbour" (Libertatea, February 27, 98).

Both language and the stereotypes feed the negative mentality of the majority, who still is intolerant to human diversity, ranging from ethnicity to sexual orientation, leading to a stigmatisation of gays and lesbians.

How much do the authorities influence the way homosexuality is reflected in the mass media?

Romanian mass media cannot be accused of being homophobic solely on its own. Its homophobia reflects only the degree to which the whole society is homophobic. The authorities make no exception from this general rule. Therefore, it is hard to tell whether it is the homophobia of the authorities that triggers that of the mass media or, whether this would be present no matter the official attitude. Anyway, Romanian media reflects carefully the authorities' negative point of view on sexual minorities. This kind of attitude is frequent enough and represent not only the state authorities, but also the Romanian Orthodox church who launched a sustained public campaign against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Romania. The interference of a religious institution in the affairs of a non-religious state apparatus is debatable. However, the press did not view it as such. Neither, was the overtly homophobic attitude of the Romanian authorities, the authorities of a country that agreed to promote and defend human rights perceived as being in total contradiction with the international agreements signed by the post '89 authorities. Romanian authorities are frequently criticised in several publications, but almost never on their refusal to accept this aspect of human diversity. Therefore, the media proves to be somewhat horse-blinded when it comes to the shortcoming on the respect of human rights of the Romanian authorities.

Recommendations

Respecting certain principles would be necessary in order to improve the quality of the press articles dealing with homosexuality published in the Romanian mass media; here is the suggested list by points.

- Never discussing the subject of homosexuality in an uninformed manner, without asking  and presenting for the minority's opinion
- Approaching same sex relations in a neutral manner; abstaining from the inclusion personal comments, often overtly in bad faith
- Presenting both the pro and con points of view in opinion articles
- Double-checking the information regarding the public statements and the actions of certain institutions, as well as of the speakers and their office - which should, on the other hand, be a matter of professional ethics and thus respected in all situations, not solely with regard to homosexuality
- Referring to published studies on the issue, especially when the author wishes to engage in a interdisciplinary approach of homosexuality
- Using appropriate photographs, only relevant to  the content of the articles
- Respecting the benefit of the doubt, meaning that homosexuals suspected of having been involved in criminal acts not be presented as automatically guilty, before the judicial authorities have given a verdict, as well as not printing the names of the suspect before the guilt was established. In fact, this last recommendation should also be respected by all journalists in all situations, and not just in the case of homosexuals.

"We still ask ourselves which is the evil that our society needs to be cured of: homosexuality or prejudice?", Adevarul de Cluj (Oct. 17, 1997)

Translated from Romanian by Ioana Popovici and Adrian Paun Newel, February 1999