''Academia Cațavencu'' (, "The Cațavencu Academy") is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n satirical magazine founded in 1991 and made famous by its

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

. ''Academia Cațavencu'' also owns ''Radio Guerrilla'

an FM radio station with national coverag

''Tabu'', a women's magazine, ''Superbebe'', a magazine for new parents, ''Aventuri la pescuit'', a magazine for fishermen, '' 24-FUN'', a free magazine for teenagers, and ''

Cotidianul The logo used between 2003 and 2007 ''Cotidianul'' (meaning ''The Daily'' in English) is a Romanian-language newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern E ...

'', a daily newspaper. In a surprise move, on May 29, 2006, ''Academia Cațavencu'' press group announced it was being acquire

by Realitatea Media, owners of

Realitatea TV Realitatea TV (, meaning "The Reality TV") is the former name of the Romanian news television channel Realitatea Plus. The channel began broadcasting in 2001 as a general-profile television and became the first Romanian news television in 2002. ...

, and controlled by controversial and elusive businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vântu. Vântu himself has often been a target of enquiries by ''Cațavencu'' journalists.

Name

Nae Cațavencu is a character in

Ion Luca Caragiale Ion Luca Caragiale (; According to his birth certificate, published and discussed by Constantin Popescu-Cadem in ''Manuscriptum'', Vol. VIII, Nr. 2, 1977, pp. 179–184 – 9 June 1912), commonly referred to as I. L. Caragiale, was a Romanians, ...

's 1883 comedy '' O scrisoare pierdută'' ("A Lost Letter"). An unscrupulous,

demagogue A demagogue (; ; ), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, Appeal to emotion, appealing to emo ...

politician, Cațavencu uses his newspaper ''Răcnetul Carpaților'' ("The Yell of the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

") to

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

politicians of the opposing party with a compromising love letter that he finds.

History

In its current form, ''Academia Cațavencu'' was founded in 1991, by a team of humourists, investigators, and literates headed by poet and former

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

Mircea Dinescu Mircea Dinescu (; born November 11, 1950) is a Romanian poet, journalist, and editor. Biography Early life and poetry He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ștefan Dinescu, a metalworker, and Aurelia (born Badea). Dinescu studied at the Faculty ...

. Part of the team had previously edited two short-lived satirical papers, ''Cațavencu Incomod'' and ''Cațavencu Internațional''. Dinescu was editor-in-chief until 1998, when he resigned and went on to create his own publications, ''Aspirina săracului'' ("The poor man's

aspirin Aspirin () is the genericized trademark for acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions that aspirin is ...

" – a joking reference to

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

), and ''Plai cu boi'' (''Land of the Dumb''), a monthly satirical magazine

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

ing the style of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

''.

Current activities

''Academia Cațavencu'' have been long-time

press freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerc ...

advocates. They maintain a "press monitoring agency", a watchdog against manipulation through mass-media. During the 2004 election campaign, Academia Cațavencu published as supplements two parody issues of '' Scânteia'' (the old-time

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

newspaper), containing reprints of articles written by important current day politicians during the

Communist era A communist era is a sustained period of national government by a single party following the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism. Many countries have experienced such a period of communist rule. Current communist states China The Chinese Communist ...

. Almost 40,000 copies were bought in bulk from newsagent

along with other newspaper

The alleged perpetrators were representatives of the then-governing Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD), whose (mostly former Communist) high members (including founder and former

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as the second president of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, ...

) were protagonists of the ''Cațavencu'' special issues. Apart from political issues, ''Academia Cațavencu'' organises and/or sponsors a number of cultural and environmental initiatives: * ''Save the

Danube Delta The Danube Delta (, ; , ) is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. Occurring where the Danube, Danube River empties into the Black Sea, most of the Danube Delta lies in Romania ...

'' * ''Save Vama Veche'' * ''Cu papucii prin deșert'' ("Across the Desert in slippers", a reference to the Dacia car

hatchback A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...

model) – a humanitarian expedition through the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

and down to

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

They also develop their own stereotypes and nicknames of the politicians, such as: *

"Nelu Cotrocelu" or "Bunicuța" ("The Granny") – associated with the

Cotroceni Palace Cotroceni Palace (Romanian language, Romanian: ''Palatul Cotroceni'') is the official residence of the President of Romania. It is located at ''Bulevardul Geniului, nr. 1'', in Bucharest, Romania. The palace also houses the National Cotroceni Mu ...

owl *

Adrian Năstase Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the prime minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004. He competed in the 2004 Romanian presidential elect ...

"Bombonel" ("Candy Boy") – in reference to his alleged

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a Romanian politician who served as the president of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian minister of transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, ...

"Popeye Marinarul" ("

Popeye the Sailor Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.commercial navy captain *

Theodor Stolojan Theodor Dumitru Stolojan (; born 24 October 1943) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992. An economist by training, he was also one of the presidents of the National Liberal Party (PNL) be ...

"The robot", "Robocop" or "Frankie" – due to his voice and comic resemblance to the classic image of

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster, commonly referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's ...

Petre Roman Petre Roman (; born 22 July 1946) is a Romanian engineer and politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 1989 to 1991, when his Third Roman cabinet, government was overthrown by the Mineriad, intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma ...

– suggests that he is rather popular among the female workers of the APACA textile factory in Bucharest (whom they reported shouting once: ''Nu vrem bani! Nu vrem valută! Vrem pe Roman să ne fută!'' ("We don't want money! We don't want hard currency! We want Roman to fuck us!"). * Gheorghe Dumitrașcu – suggests that he washes infrequently *

Nicolae Văcăroiu Nicolae Văcăroiu (; born 5 December 1943) is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD), who served as Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the Rom ...

"Votcăroiu" – allegedly heavy drinker of "Săniuța", a low-grade brand of vodka (''votcă'') * Șerban Mihăilescu "Miki Șpagă" ("Mickey Bribe") – corruption allegations * Marian Vanghelie – he has poor grammatical skills, as coined by Vanghelie's frequent and indiscriminate use of ''Care este'' ("Which is"), as a predicate for singular and plural subjects alike.

References

External links

*
Academia Cațavencu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Academia Catavencu 1991 establishments in Romania Satirical magazines published in Romania Magazines established in 1991 Magazines published in Bucharest Romanian-language magazines Political magazines published in Romania Weekly magazines published in Romania Romanian political satire