Legislation : From Pressure Factor to Stability Factor for the Romanian Media (Законодательство: От Инструмента Давления До Фактора Стабильности Медиасистемы Румынии)

Before 1989, the cultural industries were seen by the Romanian Communist state as political propaganda instruments. Journalism was state subsidized and private initiatives were not permitted. After the fall of the Communist Party, the changes in the political, economic and social systems, sustained by international forces, affected the logics of production and of distribution of cultural goods. This article identifies the changes in the regulatory pillar (Scott, 2004) of the institution of mass-media, from a pressure factor in the hands of politicians to a stability factor designed to minimize the risk taken by social actors involved in the production and the consumption of journalistic products.The evolutions at the regulatory level, in Romania, were the results of external pressures (from foreign governments to international structures such as NATO or the EU), the results of the market, that sustained financially and morally the Romanian journalistic industry, and the results of a shared vision among politicians and the rest of the Romanian population that the country is going to become a democratic state with a market economy. Thus, the Romanian legislation could be transformed, in less than two decades, from a legislation characteristic to a totalitarian state, with one relevant institution, the party-state, to a democratic legislation, that guarantees the participation with minor risks in an institution on its own rights, around journalistic products