Riding the Waves of Democratization: The Interminable Sea Sickness of Romania’s Media

This chapter demonstrates that while some positive changes in the Romanian media system have occurred since 2015, the lofty goals of reaching across-the-board media freedom, journalistic professionalism and embrace of social responsibility, legal and societal protections for journalists, credibility, and the state and government respect for the media remain distant aspirations. For now, the voyage that is democratization creates a seemingly interminable sea sickness for the media, their journalists, audiences, and democracy itself, even if forward movement is discernable despite the headwinds.