Announcing a new focus on digital and the 64% decline in print sales since 2018, Ringier Sports Media Group confirmed the firing of "three employees" at local Libertatea and said that "an assessment of the editorial team will be conducted to identify the necessary steps to build a digital-focused newsroom." 

The journalists of the daily, with a focus on investigative journalism, see the move as new pressures on the editorial policy in favour of business groups, particularly from the gambling industry.

The three employees are editor-in-chief (editorial coordinator) Catalin Tolontan, deputy editor-in-chief Iulia Rosu, and head of print division Camelia Stan. 

"Another 20% of journalists will be fired", according to the general director of Ringier Romania, Dan Puica.

Two NGOs, ActiveWatch and the Center for Independent Journalism, expressed their solidarity with the journalists of Libertatea and Gazeta Sporturilor (another Ringier publication decapitated for broadly similar reasons in October) and "their disappointment at the way Ringier violates his principles of editorial independence that he publicly claims". 

"[...] Ringier only wants to sell advertising," accused ActiveWatch, quoted by Libertatea.ro.

On August 28, 2023, the editorial offices of Gazeta Sporturilor and Libertatea made an internal appeal to the Ringier headquarters in Zürich requesting an end to pressures against journalistic independence. Evidence, e-mails and testimony were presented to demonstrate management's interference with the editorial policy.

Among the indications expressed by the management, there were recommendations about how to disclose the content to the management prior to publication and how to found a lobby organization for the betting industry, similar to the one that a publication majority owned by Ringier has in Bulgaria.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)