The URL is http://www.cotidianul.ro Physically, they're in Bucharest. They are published by Poligraph Ltd, a consortium of Regent House Printing and Publishing and Academia Catavencu. The main shareholder of Regent House is the Ratiu family --- could be the same Ratiu who got rich in the West and returned to Romania after 1989 to be one of the re-founders of the National Peasant Party. (I think he is dead by now.)
Academia Catavencu is the foundation/think tank that publishes Catavencu, one of the leading satirical publications of Romania. (Used to be even more powerful when poet/dissident Mircea Dinescu was with them.) I recall (when I went home more often) that they used to be heavily involved with the Soros foundation (but this was around 1995), both as recipients of S. funds and as co-"conspirators".
Think of them as a politically more involved and outspoken Daily Show team, who preached and practised as well. (Even more involved and with considerably more spine than the Hocipo team in Hungary.) But, as I say, these are old memories, I don't know what they look like now. And I don't know if Cotidianul as a daily shares the same spirit.
Do you read http://www.transindex.ro ? It has a daily roundup of the Hungarian press in R. What do you think of Provincia?
The Szatmaris:
>>I have one quibble: it may well be that Tibor Szatmári was a shill for Fidesz, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was a Romanian spy - but that's what would have made him a national security danger to be pushed from his job. It's all messy.<<
If you don't mind my Transylvanian paranoia: (i) typical Budapest mud-slinging and backstabbing, and (ii) what do you taint a Transylvanian with? With being on the "olah" payroll. I mean it is a scenario that conforms to certain Hungarian Hungarians' stereotypes about Transylvanians. Transylvanian hypersensitivity aside, it does look as if T.Sz. had not been completely innocent, but, well.
>>And if the NBH acted on its own, why did it leak?<< Send a message to Fidesz shills?
Here is the "kolofon" of Cotidianul (German "Impressum", I don't know the English term ):
[[COTIDIANUL este editat de catre Poligraf SRL, care are urmatorii actionari:
SC Catavencu SA (50%) - detine actiunea de control Regent House Printing & Publishing (RH P&P) SRL 50%
Academia Catavencu IQ Editex SRL 49,993% (Doru Buscu, Eugen Istodor, Liviu Mihaiu, Sorin Vulpe, Cornel Ivanciuc, Octavian Mardale, Ioan Morar, Viorel Motoc, Mircea Toma) Fundatia Anonimul 49,993% Stefan Iordachescu 0,005951% Camelia Celesta Donen 0,005951% Camelia Suciu 0,005951%
Regent House Printing & Publishing (RH P&P) SRL Familia Ratiu 80% Calin Husar 20%]] A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
By leaking the part that hurts the government and helps Fidesz and the supposed Romanian policy of dividing the government and RMDSz? Don't get me wrong, I even suspect your 'paranoia' should rather be called "realism", but the jigshaw puzzle still doesn't fit together for me.
On the other hand, I just remembered, it is said this affair has been known to members of the parliamentary committee since spring this year. So it wasn't necessarily a leak from the NBH, the leak could have been a Fidesz operation altogether.
Thanks for the background info on Cotidianul! In this light, that line about being the voice of Fidesz in Romania sounds even stranger, unless it only means that Cotidianul accepts leaks from Fidesz sources. (Also thanks for recommending those two Transsylvanian sites - I have only visited transindex before.)
From what I read, Cotidianul's Securitate accusations against Markó weren't sound - so this may imply their level has declined since you knew them. (Can happen - in my personal opinion, what used to be the best paper in your present country of living and perhaps the world, DER SPIEGEL, declined greatly in quality after Augstein's death.) As for Hócipő, I agree they have become rather crappy (like, IMO, basically all left-liberal Hungarian papers) - however, lately they did some investigative reporting, contributing to the exposure of Viktor Orbán's little tricks and little lies in his appartment changes. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I'll have to read up on the whole affair to have more paranoid hypotheses about who leaked what and to whom and why, and that if X leaked Y about Z in the daily Alpha then in fact Z did W with U, against V.
Pedantry: I used to know Academia Catavencu, the satirical weekly of this group. I knew they've branched out (e.g. they collectively owned a racehorce at one point), but I had no idea they had the daily Cotidianul until today. Or that Cotidianul even existed.
The AC gang used to be very progressive, they even joked openly about being on Soros' payroll and being the Bozgors' shills. But it doesn't follow that the daily they happen to publish should be just as open-minded, cosmopolitan and so on. (And the funny thing is, the people who WRITE the weekly A.C. are in fact shareholders and co-owners of Cotidianul. Aside: it's at times like this that I realise what a long way we've come since 1989...)
Although, it may still be the daily that's most open & even-handed with Budapest. (The only article I checked was a surprisingly sane and rational editorial from today about the "minority law" that adhoc wrote about here.)
>>Amúgy nem vicces hogy egy francia által az Egyesült Államokban telepített portálon két némileg elnémetesedett magyar angolul beszélget magyar ügyekről?...<< Ugy ingesamt igen, de a mai napig fogalmam nem volt, hogy magyar vagy. Eppugy lehetnel Bp-n megtelepedett amerikai, nemet, vagy mas kapitalista. A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
