A protest against the closure of one of Romania's national TV channels will be organized on Thursday (August 16 ) in Bucharest. The Romanian Association for Culture and Education – ARCEN – will organize the 'TV remote control protest' in front of the Romanian Athenaeum starting 19:00 on Thursday, protesting against the closing down of TVR Cultural and underlining the crisis in the public cultural institutions and the crisis of values in Romanian society.

The protest also aims to highlight the situation of the Romanian mass media, which is invaded by political entertainment, kitsch, ignorance, non-values and virulence. 'TVR Cultural was the only TV station exclusively dedicated to culture, an non-political meeting place for intellectuals, cultural people and in general people with constructive ideas,” according to ARCEN.

This follows a series of online movements supporting the TV station. As many as 5,400 signatures were raised on a petition website.

Romania’s state-owned television TVR, which is currently in financial trouble, with a current loss of some EUR 145 million, decided to shut down two of its channels, TVR Info and TVR Cultural, to save money.

Both TVR Info and TVR Cultural will stop broadcasting, and their content included in the programs for TVR 1 and TVR 2. From August 15, TVR Info will end collaboration with its journalists, said Saftoiu in an interview for Mediafax.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)