Radio Revolution
58 mins
September 2009
00.26 This is Radio Free Europe...
00.32 Subtitle:Nicolae CeausescuPresident of Romania 1974-1989 I grew up with these voices, without seeing their faces ... I heard them, but I was not interested. Politics were disgusting. There was nothing we could do, anyway. But my father listened every night to Radio Free Europe; if he turned ours off, you could hear the neighbours’ radio. As Ceausescu’s propaganda had less and less to do with reality, RFE provided people with news, but also with a little bit of hope. Night after night, millions of people performed this ritual. And the morning after, the words of Free Europe were on everybody’s lips. A whole country hung on some voices coming from far away.
01.19 You are listening to the second program of the day, broadcasting until 10 p.m…
01.32 When I listened to Free Europe in Bucharest, in the ‘70s or ’80s, I had no idea it had been created in 1950, as an instrument for American propaganda. Or that it was financed by the CIA, in the beginning, at least. The world was at war at that time. The Cold War. And propaganda was an important weapon. Free Europe was broadcasting from Western Germany and there was a department for every country in Eastern Europe. The Romanian section was the most popular.
02.14 peasant I understood a lot from them.For instance, that you can lie to somebody for a while, but you cannot lie to everybody all the time. The way the communists did.
02.30 Serban OrescuRadio Free Europe Free Europe, especially in the last years before the fall of the communism, replaced the opposition. In fact this is what it was. It replaced the opposition.
02.43 This is a love and hate story, woven around invisible waves. It involves three collective characters. First, the stars on the radio, a kind of stars with no face. Then there were us, the listeners. But there was somebody else, somebody who listened and wished to silence all that.
03.11 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - Did you listen to Radio Free Europe?- Yes, of course, I listened to it because I had to. For about a year, as long as I was in charge of a unit within the Securitate.- What was the name of the unit?- The Ether.
03.41 Subtitle: 21/2/1981Free Europe’s Munich HQ bombed In this war bombs were used, and there were victims too. It was believed the directors of the Romanian section were exposed to radiation. Three of them died of cancer. Time passed by. There are different wars now. But if we listen to the voices, we might get a better picture. CHECK LEVEL ON THIS _ DISTORTED
04.00 TITLE: COLD WAVES
04.09 Reagan archive My name is Ronald Reagan.Last year the contributions of 16 million Americans to the Crusade for Freedom made possible the Freedom Bell, a symbol of hope and freedom to the peoples of Eastern Europe. And built this powerful 135000 watt Free Europe transmitter, in Western Germany. This station pierces The Iron Curtain with the truth, answering the lies of the Kremlin bringing a message of hope to millionstrapped behind the Iron Curtain.
04.42 For us, Free Europe sounded like a Romanian radio station in exile… the voices coming through the air belonged to people like us.
04.52 Until 1995, the station was located in these headquarters near Englischer Garten, in Munich. I invited the editors to meet here again. Many of them have not visited the building since it was turned into a Journalism University.
05.12 RFE staff meet Did you get younger, girls?
05.26 - We are all museums!- How dare you?-You should tell usthat we are young and beautiful.
05.42 - Don’t use your tongue! Please.
05.52 RFE staff look around building This was the stand by...This was a news studio.This was my office!Here was the administration.This was Armand’s office.And this was Trudi’s office!Mr. Orescu worked here!Give me the key.Down with communism!
06.19 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe I was waiting for Noel Bernardto receive me in his officeand I got hugely surprisedwhen the door flew openand there was this kid...His shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his eyes were incredibly blue, his brown hair combed to the sideand a big smile on his face. “It’s so nice to meet you”,he said, “come in.”I entered his office,I was somehow stiff, amazed,I couldn’t get it together.Could this kid be Noel Bernard?!
07.05 Ioana married Noel Bernard in 1973. Back then, he was the director of the Romanian department, and almost a legend. In a few years, he had brought the ratings of Radio Free Europe in Romania - three times higher. Some 65% of all radio listeners stayed tuned on the Free Europe frequency.
07.30 It was the night of 4th March 1977 in Bucharest. The national television was airing a Bulgarian movie. Out of the blue, the earth started to shake underneath our feet. The broadcast stopped.
07.46 TITLE: 4/3/1977 Romanian earthquake kills 1500
07.51 Meanwhile, at the Radio Free Europe headquarters in Munich, the monitoring service noticed something odd.
07.58 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe Noel received a call informing him that Radio Bucharest wasn’t broadcasting. He immediately went to the radio and the minute he found out what was going on - through a cable received from the US from Colorado about the earthquake - he asked for a frequency he could use for a 24/7 broadcast.
08.25 Cornel BurticaCommunist Party I was the first to get to theCentral Committee after the earthquake. I contacted Ceausescu, who was at that time in Nigeria. I told him what had happened in Bucharest.
08.49 The National Radio and Television were silent all night long. Until next morning, when Ceausescu was back, nobody dared to release an official press communiqué. It was Radio Free Europe who filled the void.
09.05 - Hello, is this Munich?- Yes.- Talk to Romania, you are now connected.- Thank you.
09.17 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe This bridge, an unbelievable bridge, was built over night,linking Romania to Radio Free Europe. In Bucharest there werea lot of teams who were all ears. They listened to the radio, wrote down the names, addresses and phone numbers and then – by car,by motorcycle, by bicycle,they went to those addresses...Then they called back to tell us what they found out, so that we could pass the news to those in the West who wanted to know first.
09.57 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe This was sensational, the connection through the operator with Romania. There were calls from Romania. “Mr. Bernard, I’m so happy to meet you! Me too...”It was an extraordinary complicitythat lasted for a few days, as if this was normality. All this against the background of a disaster. In a way, this complicity in time of disaster always worked between Free Europe and Romania.
10.31 Ceausescu, who cut short his trip to Nigeria, inspected the sites. Natural disasters were excellent propaganda opportunities.
10.41 Propaganda archive My fellow Romanians, this wasmore difficult for us than death;the terrible earthquake, when the earth shook like the leaves from a tree. But we still have hope that we are all humans and that our manhas come back to this country.He fearlessly faced disaster, as he is very brave. He walked solemnlyand sad…
11.28 After the earthquake, the political system seemed to be also shaking. In February, writer Paul Goma launched an open letter on the radio, asking for the human rights to be respected in Romania.
11.42 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I was supposed to call Free Europe and prevent them from broadcasting the letter. I didn’t want to. It seemed to me I was in control at that moment and that I must not give in.
11.58 Ion VianuPsychiatrist In March 1977, I signed Paul Goma’s appeal. This happened two months after it had been published. I have to confess that, like other people who signed this appeal, I was preparing to leave the country. At a certain point,I started to realize that I was going to be arrested.
12.26 A few months later there came the coal miners’ strike and the first free trade unions were created. Radio Free Europe had plenty of topics in 1977.
12.40 Vasile ParaschivPolitical Activist LEVEL LOUD I was kept permanently up to datewith the latest news thanks to the radio: rights, liberties, strikesand marches in Paris. It was almost like I saw it, as if I watched it through my window. As if I could see everything that happened in the West.
13.03 In the 70’s, the atmosphere at the radio and everywhere on the globe was completely different. People didn’t talk about truth or lies anymore, but about a relaxation between the United States and the Soviet block. It was then that Radio Free Europe passed from the CIA under the control of the American Congress. The propaganda got softer and the relations between East and West had a new fresh start.
13.44 Ceausescu meets Former President Jimmy Carter This morning, the people of the United States are honoured by having as our guest a great leader of a great country.
14.03 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe The Americans had a very convenient “censoring” method, so to speak. It was convenient for us and probably for them too. They had a very rigorous reading and translating section for our texts and they also drew various conclusions. Analysis meetings took place every three months.Americans, together with representatives for Romania, drew conclusions about what we did. Sometimes the conclusions were severe: “So much sarcasm!” “This is no way of addressing a chief of state with whom the US has official relations.”We had to offer arguments,to give explanations – in a colloquial manner, but still...Sometimes things got rather steamy... But that happened a long time after the shows had been broadcast.
14.59 Anything that was a threat to the détente between the East and the West had to be avoided. In West Germany, Radio Free Europe had a bad reputation anyway, like any other institution imposed by the Americans and associated with the Cold War.
15.15 archive We are broadcasting the weekly editorial. Noel Bernard, the director of our radio station speaking…
15.21 archive We don’t know who has been writing Ceausescu’s speeches latelybut in some of them there are entire fragments that resist anylogical analysis. Mr. Ceausescu blames the newspapers and the media for the unsettling numberof people who want to emigrate.
15.55 People didn’t have many options. One of them was to leave the country. But a passport, that was hard to get.
16.04 Ceausescu himself perceivedRadio Free Europe as the main reason for his degrading image abroad. He took very personal offence in the radio shows,in the waves that crossed the borders without a passport.It was then when he decided to take radical measures.Unbeknownst, a war was waged. A war against a radio station.
16.37 Monica Lovinescu was attacked in November 1977. A lot of the cultural radio shows she anchored together with her husband, Virgil Ierunca, were recorded here in their apartment in Paris. When I visited her, Mrs. Lovinescu couldn’t get out of bed anymore.
17.01 Monica LovinescuRadio Free Europe I was coming back from the cityand in the garden there were these two Palestinians. One of them came to me and asked me to allow them to come inside. I said no.They started to hit me. They hit my head, my arm. Somebody who was passing by heard my cries and chased them away. So they left their business unfinished. It had spectacular results, but that was the only effect. They ran away.
17.53 Dan ZamfirescuWriter I tell you sincerely, in this war, Cold War if you wish, Radio Free Europe equalled ten divisions.You know Stalin’s famous question: “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” Well, Radio Free Europe equalled several divisions. Monica and Ierunca should have received ranks of field marshals for this battle. They were field marshals of the Cold War.
18.24 Monica LovinescuRadio Free Europe Monica had no power but for the microphone.- But that was a great power... - It was great, indeed...It brought a lot of satisfaction.The fact that you can change somebody’s life from miles away...This is exhilarating.
19.03 Nestor Ratesh has spent the last few years studying the actions of the Securitate against Radio Free Europe,led by the “Ether” group, founded in 1980. The “Ether” was keeping an eye on the eighty employees of the Romanian Department, as well as on their Romanian listeners.
19.23 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer How many people worked in your unit?- The lieutenants, in charge of training, from the central units,internal and external.Well, let’s say about fifteen.Give or take, I can’t remember exactly.- They say it was eight hundred.- Eight hundred what?- Eight hundred people who supposedly worked with this...- Oh, all right, there were one or two extra officers in the territorial departments, in each county, who centralised the information.
20.01 In its first six months of activity, the “Ether” identified 1.000 people who had tried to contact the network. Among these, 400 were young peoplerequesting songs.
20.34 archive Disco ‘76.Presented by Andrei Voiculescu.-Dear friends, today’s program is interesting for you, as well as for me. The singles I have preparedarrived this very morning, so I didn’t have time...
21.00 Andrei VoiculescuRadio Free Europe Noel Bernard knew precisely what to do in order to form a category of listeners who would follow his political programs too. My program had listenerswho were 13, 14 years old, up to 28. As they grew up, they also listened to other programs.
21.33 The Securitate’s files reveal that, in 1983, for example 934 letters from young people were intercepted. Some of the lists of songs made it to their destination though, and were subsequently broadcast by request in Andrei Voiculescu’s show.
21.53 Andrei VoiculescuRadio Free Europe On the post card, in the left upper corner, this listener had drawna blue circle and had written in red letters: “Dear Censorship comrades, please let this post card through, we love music and music is innocent. Please!”
22.26 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer Sometimes we even had to identifyyoung people requesting music. See who they were and so on... It was stupid and absurd. We often didn’t obey these orders, precisely because we realised that it was really meaningless.
music
23.02 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - I have a colleague who told me that, when he was fourteen, he sent a message to Radio Free Europe requesting a song, and the friend supposed to pass on the message turned him in... There was this seclusion... The next day they took him, they caught him, they put him into...- How old was he? Fourteen?- Yes. He was fourteen and they took him.- When did this happen?- Well, I think ’80 or ’81.- I think that he exaggerates. Nobody ever did that.- They didn’t do much to him.They just took him...- I doubt that.- They took him to the Securitateheadquarters where they just slapped him once...- I’m telling you, I never heard about any of my colleagues slapping anybody, not to mention my subordinates.
23.52 Radio Free Europe was also under heavy fire from the Bucharest newspapers. In just two years, over one hundred articles against the radio were published. Meanwhile, the attacks grew fiercer.
24.07 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe On the first of March 1981, the Romanian exile newspaper “BIRE” published an article saying that Noel Bernard was seriously ill, that he could not fulfil his obligations as director anymore. On the same page, below the quoted text Colonel Ion Tiseanu writes in his own handwriting: “Comrade Colonel Bogdan, the information published by BIRE confirms that the measures we took are starting to be effective”.
25.02 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - At the time when Noel Bernard got ill, there is one document stating that “the measures started to show results”.- Mental condition may affect health, can’t it?
25.26 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE Noel was convinced that in his office which is up the stairs and down the end he had been radiated. Because of his allegations, through the doctors’ office which is downstairs, I had specialists come down here with radioactive detecting equipment.We went through the whole building, we never found any radiation, anywhere…
Music reprieve TOO LOUD
26.14 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe Noel’s state got worse and the subsequent chemotherapy he had was not at all helpful. So late December, a day before Christmas’ Eve, the night of 23 of December, he died.
26.40 archive Death turns a man’s life into a biography. The biography of Noel Bernard has something of the light simplicity of a destiny. He was born and died in the studios of Radio Free Europe. That means, in Romania. Because in the imaginary space of the studio, was the real Romania, which Noel Bernard, this moderate agnostic, entered as into a religion. A strange religion, with its millions of invisible believers who, in the country shackled by history and bad luck, were always waiting for his words, like a sort of redemption.
27.27 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe How come this disease was so picky? How did it only search for its victims in the Romanian department? How could it coincidentally serve the Romanian Securitate so well?
27.52 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer We also have to take into account some people’s desire to feel important. There were some people who constantly claimed they were followed and watched over.
28.13 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe It is in Noel Bernard’s file rather than in the general files about Radio Free Europe that we find the following: “We shall study the station’s buildings and equipment, the security and protection system, the vulnerable spots etc., so we can find ways and concrete solutions to use adequate means to damage and destroy the buildings and equipment of Radio Free Europe by placing explosives, initiating fires etc.”
29.25 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE It was Saturday night, The bomb was at 9:47, 3 minutes later they called me. When I came down here, the street was blocked, police, fire engines everywhere… The building was black because the power was out in most of the area.
29.48 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe The bomb caused damage and injuries - one of the injured people subsequently died... at the Czech Service. But it was nine o’clock in the evening, on a Saturday, there were few people in the building, so it didn’t have the effects desired by the Securitate. Still, it caused a lot of damage. There was an estimated loss of about four million dollars.
30.23 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE We didn’t know anything, the investigation never proved anything, it was an unknown person with the bomb… And again, only after 1989 when the Wall came down a STASI man came up with the file copies that he had and sold them to the radio.
30.41 The STASI files contain some documents that were photocopied in 1980 by the Hungarian secret services in a safe house in Budapest. These documents are actually sketches of Free Europe headquarters; they indicate where the transmitters were and feature plans to blow up the buildings. In the ‘90s, Detlev Mehlis, a Berlin prosecutor specialized in counter-terrorism got hold of the documents. He credited Carlos the Jackal and his collaborator Johannes Weinrich for these notes.
31.16 Detlev Mehlis Public Prosecutor We researched these attacks on Radio Free Europe along with the other attacks and we came to the conclusion that the group aroundCarlos and Weinrich was supported by the secret servicesin two states to accomplish these attacks. We are talking about Syria on one hand, and Romania on the other. Bucharest represented one of the headquarters for the group and the logistical support – guns, passports – was very important. It was these passports that made the attacks in the West possible.
32.14 Isabelle Coutant-Peyre Lawyer At our first meeting, I was very impressed by his calm. He didn’t act like a prisoner at all.Carlos is not pursued for whathappened at Radio Free Europe,which was the voice of the CIAin Europe during the Cold War.I think Johannes Weinrichis pursued for that in Germany.
32.44 Ilich Ramirez Sanchez,also known as Carlos the Jackal, is currently serving a life term in an old prison in France. I was not allowed to see him. But I managed to talk to him on the phone. This is the first interview Carlos gives on this matter.
33.06 TITLE: Clairvaux High-Security PrisonVoice of Carlos the Jackal President Ceauşescu,I had a lot of admiration for him.His wife, Elena, was different.I have to say, she was difficult.But I think he was a good man, an honest man, although a little naïve. He was not an intellectual; he was a peasant, a hard-core communist, a patriot. A Romanian who loved his country, who wanted to offer a good life to his people.- But at that time you felt you should help Ceauşescu?- Yes exactly, we had to cooperate, why not? You had a base, not an operational base, but a place where you can have meetings, where you can invite people from abroad for a quiet meeting, where you feel protected... this is always good. We had such bases in about fifteen socialist countries. As Romania was a police state, a rather staunch one, this was no bad thing.
34.12 Detlev Mehlis, Public Prosecutor After investigating these facts, we have no doubt that the attacks on Radio Free Europe were ordered and supported by the Romanian Securitate.
34.30 Voice of Carlos the Jackal We had nothing to do with all that. This is not our level, ok?If we had worked as agents, it would have been better to work for Saddam or for the president of Libya, who had millions, right?The Romanians had nothing...
34.57 At that time, no one believed that the regime in Bucharest was involved with terrorism. Heads of state like Giscard d’Estaing kept visiting Ceausescu. The task of the people from Free Europe was therefore even more difficult. They sought support for the cause with Western journalists. Bernard Poulet was one of the first to have been approached.
35.19 Bernard PouletJournalist It was a very discrete but very efficient work with the media, because little by little it taught me and a lot of other Western journalists the Romanian reality.The French journalists were sometimes a little naïve and easy to manipulate, so it helped them understand that Romanian reality was less nice than the propaganda showed.
35.50 As conditions grew worse, more and more Romanians considered leaving the country.In 1986 alone, 1132 persons were cited by Radio Free Europe as wanting to emigratebut failing to get a passport.
36.06 archive The father stays only in bed; the little girl is wearing five sweaters one on top of the other; the mother can’t write, her hand freezes holding the pencil…
36.17 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe We weren’t cold observers from a distance. But one of the important rules imposed by the American leadership and by our professional position was not to incite things that could spin out of control afterwards. We had no chance of protecting the life or liberty of those people. But we could talk about the elections in Poland, about the attitude of the intellectuals who supported the workers, things that did not happen in Romania. But we never said: “You should do the same”.The example was implicit.The suggestion was implicit.This was one of the tricks and tactics of the propaganda, let’s put it this way. And we did care for the listener. We gave them what they wanted to hear in order to be informed, or just to let off steam.Someone was saying the truth that they didn’t dare to utter.
37.25 After Gorbatchev came to power in 1985, Ceauşescu was suddenly perceived as the most backward leader in all Eastern Europe. Finally, the international community started to acknowledge the criticism of Radio Free Europe against the regime in Bucharest.
37.42 Voice of Josy DubieJournalist I had the feeling that Romaniawas a sort of twilight zone in Europe, so I wanted to see for myself. It was out of the question to go there as a journalist, except for an official invitation, surrounded by the Securitate…So I decided I should go there in secret. Then something extraordinary happened to me, because we drove to Cluj, and when I arrived there the city was dark. The electricity was off... I visited a church, and when I came out, as I went to my car, a woman approached me.
38.21 Doina CorneaProfessor Political Activist I didn’t care about the Securitate. I knocked on the window and I told him: “I am a dissident”. I knew this would get him interested.
38.36 Josy DubieJournalist She gave me a doll and said: “In this doll’s head there is a message that I want to transmit to my daughter, in France. And if you don’t take it, I will never be able to get it out and explain what is happening in this country.
38.52 archive That day, when she left the church, she saw our car. The Belgian plates made her confident. Mrs. Cornea begged us to take this little doll back to the West. In the head, two handwritten notes, written clandestinely, one of which was meant for Radio Free Europe.
39.14 Archive You are listening to the Romanian Program. Mr. President of the State Council, repressive measures, corruption, injustice and disinformation are on the rise everywhere... Fear and uncertainty are also increasing…
39.34 Doina CorneaPolitical Activist And it was very useful. Because without Radio Free Europe I don’t think my dissidence would have been possible.
39.45 Josy DubieJournalist My report was broadcast around the world. It was the first one that showed the reality of the Ceauşescu regime from the inside.He invited political dignitaries, even Belgians went there. They were received as kings, they could not see the reality. This is the difference between an official and a journalist like I was. Now I am a politician, but I was a journalist and I would always look “behind the scenes”. My story showed the sinister reality of this country, of an awful dictator who imposed his will over his subjects, who lived in terrible poverty.
Archive empty food shops
41.09 At the end of 1987,a book was published in the US that struck yet another blow to Ceausescu’s image. The book was by General Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence chief who had defected to the West. In the book, General Pacepa unveils the measures against Free Europe, ordered by Ceausescu. One of the methods they used was exposure to X-rays, often by means of a portable device, that Ceausescu affectionately called “Radu”.
41.45 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe We discovered the streets emptied at the time the book was broadcast. It was split into several broadcasts. Streets emptied because everybody went to listen.
42.02 archive General Pacepa’s book is a horrible book. It shows an ugly, corrupt, illiterate, immoral world.The president curses his ministers, the president’s wife scolds her acolytes and calls them idiots.The ministry of Foreign Affairs behaves like a lackey. It’s a world where people like to drink French champagne and eat cheese and onions. It’s a whole system of ass-kissers, whose houses are bugged, with mikes everywhere, even under the beds. These people are afraid of their two supreme leaders, but they would do anything not to lose the right to enjoy the privileges.
42.52 archive One of the most interesting topicsPacepa’s book deals with is the relation between Ceausescu’s regime and Radio Free Europe.
43.03 archive Yes, there is no way we can be certain this information is true or not.The regime must understand that this radio station cannot be silenced. There are people who disappeared: Emil Georgescu, Noel Bernard, people who are here now may disappear. But the Radio is here to stay, because it is its duty to broadcast. Nothing can prevent it from doing that.
43.52 But Ceausescu refused to die. It seemed an endless nightmare. In ‘88-‘89, things started to change all around Romania. We were the only ones standing still.
44.09 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I felt I lost my mind when I saw what happened the moment the Soviet Union began Perestroika. Ceausescu refused to do that. He said those things had already been done in Romania. All around us communist regimes collapsed like dominos, one by one. But our despair couldn’t show on air. We shouldn’t express it, anyway. It would have meant we incited the people. Romanians had to deal with their own despair. And wait for the right moment. And the right moment came.
44.51 Archive - How dare you shoot at us?!We are Romanians! As Romanian as you!Tanks and guns are on the streets.People are shot.Timisoara, 17th December 1989.
45.14 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer This should have never happened.
45.31 Romania, 1989, Ceausescu’s era.
45.39 Five days after the revolt in Timisoara, people took to the streets in Bucharest. Like during the 1977 earthquake, the link between the radio and its listeners climaxed once again.
45.56 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe It was like a great fresco, or like a theatre performance. The Good on one side, so weak that it might not prevail, The Evil on the other side. The confrontation was live, even if we were 2000 km away.
46.15 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe There was this continuous to and fro. We were under constant pressure. We felt like soldiers on the barricades. Even if the news were our only bullets.
46.35 My brothers, thanks be to God, we are now in the television studio. We managed to get here behind the tanks...
46.44 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe It was clear television would defeat us, the radio, because it could add images to the information. Images have a deeper impact than words alone.
47.02 archive We will ask Luiza Cunea to read the first newscast of free Romania.- Bucharest: Nicolae Ceausescu was released from his position.Emanuel Valeriu, our fellow journalist, told us on the phone that today, around 12 o’clock,Ceausescu left the headquarters of the Central Committee by helicopter. Hundreds of thousands of people in the square shouted: “Don’t let the dictators flee.They must be put to trial.”
47.32 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe Freedom came to earth! It is Judgment Day! We can go home.Romania is now in Europe.Europe is unconditionally free.There was no need anymore for a metaphor of Europe in Munich, surrounded by walls and paid for by the Americans. Europe was now Free. It was our dream come true and we were still young!
48.01 archive We won!!! We won!!!
48.09 Maybe Free Europe won the battle. But their victory was the beginning of the end.
48.18 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I came to Romania. I started a radio station called Radio Total.But I didn’t fit in. I had the feeling there was no dialogue between me and the others, even if we spoke the same language. I thought it was my fault. Maybe I was the one who had changed. I couldn’t find my Romania. When I realized that, in 2002, I said to myself: “This is it, it’s your fault, you’d better leave.” So I left.
48.58 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe In all those years, we didn’t know in which world we lived. The focus on Romania, on information, feeling all that fear and uncertainty, the lack of normal communication with our country...Romania followed you everywhere, it cast a shadow on every experience we had outside Radio Free Europe.
49.28 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe It prevented us from getting in contact with the reality we experienced – when we went shopping, to a restaurant, to the cinema. We had a comfortable life, no doubt, but slightly schizophrenic. After having spoken for ten hours about Romania and all the misery there, you couldn’t shut the door behind you and enter a free world.It was not easy to bear.Even when I watched TV,I watched shows about the communist world, movies from the communist world. We were living in the same sauce we had left behind. There was no other way, because that was my job and it was my life. Maybe it would have been easier if I had chosen another way. I would have spoken better German, I would have had stronger connections. But this was my destiny and I had to follow it.
50.31 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer The people at Free Europe pretended to be brave. If they had been here they wouldn’t have acted like this. It was easy to preach. But what if they had stayed and acted from inside the country... They fled and called themselves dissidents. We had no genuine dissidents, that’s it.
51.00 The questions about the attacks on Free Europeremained unanswered.Some of the people on the radio “converted” to TV hosts. But it’s not only them. Some of the Securitate officers are TV stars, too. General Plesita headed the Counter-Intelligence during the attacks in 1981.
51.26 TV footage Whom did you want to kill at RFE? Which ones did you want to kill at Free Europe?- Do you want me to answer this question laughing? All of them.- It was Ceausescu’s order, wasn’t it?- No way, do you think Ceausescu took care of every detail every day?- Was it your personal initiative?- No, it was part of my job as Chief of Foreign Intelligence. It was a professional obligation.- Who chose the way you acted against Free Europe? Many of these attacks were failures. The results were rather scandals.- There was no scandal at all, they were very well done, my only regret is they were not at a larger scale. Absolutely! - Meanwhile rules have changed, some of the people from RFE...- It changed for the naïve.
52.24 General Plesita was investigated several times about these statements but was never indicted. When I talked to Carlos, I asked him his opinion on this.
52.37 Voice of Carlos the Jackal - But why is Plesita in prison?- He’s not in prison...- Really? I am pleased to hear that...- Why?- He’s a nice guy, I liked him a lot.He drank like a sponge, you know.We could talk freely, the two of us. We walked in the parks, where there were no microphones.Our conversation was difficult, as he didn’t speak Russian very well.But I considered him a nice guy.He offered me a gift for my birthday, he gave me two Soviet shot guns, I liked them a lot. It was like Che Guevara. We offered each other presents. It was the Latin spirit, it felt like home. It was good.
53.28 Neither Carlos, nor Weinrich will be probably indicted for the attack against RFE, but they will stay behind bars for the rest of their natural lives. The world has changed since then, Carlos has converted to Islam. As yet, there is no technical explanation for how the three directors of RFE were allegedly irradiated. The theory about “Radu”, described by Pacepa, does not hold water: it is impossible to secretly transport a powerful radioactive machine. But at the end of 2006, a former KGB officer was assassinated in London with a radioactive substance put in his food. After all these years, Litvinenko’s poisoning offers a possible explanation.
54.16 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe Knowing how many people listened to RFE, I hoped the Romanians learned more about democracy, freedom, responsibility.
54.38 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer I haven’t changed after ’89 and I don’t think man can fundamentally change overnight, or after one month. The real man stays the same. This idea of a change of mentality change that certain elitists and analysts talk about is nothing but rubbish. This is the entrance to the meeting room, of the Deputies’ Chamber.- You are an opposition member of Parliament now.- Yes, I am. We want to gain power to put things in order in this country. I believe we are the only party that can do it. We are the only ones who are not corrupted. We are not involved in any fishy business. We are not the Mob, we don’t jeopardise the national economy.
55.53 This is Radio Free Europe.Dear listeners, good morning.You are now listening to the first radio show, broadcast until 9 o’clock on short waves: 31, 41 and 49 m, and on the following frequency: 9660, 7165 and 5985 KHz…
A film by Alexandru Solomon
Adapted for Journeyman Pictures by Keely Stucke
58 mins
September 2009
00.26 This is Radio Free Europe...
00.32 Subtitle:Nicolae CeausescuPresident of Romania 1974-1989 I grew up with these voices, without seeing their faces ... I heard them, but I was not interested. Politics were disgusting. There was nothing we could do, anyway. But my father listened every night to Radio Free Europe; if he turned ours off, you could hear the neighbours’ radio. As Ceausescu’s propaganda had less and less to do with reality, RFE provided people with news, but also with a little bit of hope. Night after night, millions of people performed this ritual. And the morning after, the words of Free Europe were on everybody’s lips. A whole country hung on some voices coming from far away.
01.19 You are listening to the second program of the day, broadcasting until 10 p.m…
01.32 When I listened to Free Europe in Bucharest, in the ‘70s or ’80s, I had no idea it had been created in 1950, as an instrument for American propaganda. Or that it was financed by the CIA, in the beginning, at least. The world was at war at that time. The Cold War. And propaganda was an important weapon. Free Europe was broadcasting from Western Germany and there was a department for every country in Eastern Europe. The Romanian section was the most popular.
02.14 peasant I understood a lot from them.For instance, that you can lie to somebody for a while, but you cannot lie to everybody all the time. The way the communists did.
02.30 Serban OrescuRadio Free Europe Free Europe, especially in the last years before the fall of the communism, replaced the opposition. In fact this is what it was. It replaced the opposition.
02.43 This is a love and hate story, woven around invisible waves. It involves three collective characters. First, the stars on the radio, a kind of stars with no face. Then there were us, the listeners. But there was somebody else, somebody who listened and wished to silence all that.
03.11 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - Did you listen to Radio Free Europe?- Yes, of course, I listened to it because I had to. For about a year, as long as I was in charge of a unit within the Securitate.- What was the name of the unit?- The Ether.
03.41 Subtitle: 21/2/1981Free Europe’s Munich HQ bombed In this war bombs were used, and there were victims too. It was believed the directors of the Romanian section were exposed to radiation. Three of them died of cancer. Time passed by. There are different wars now. But if we listen to the voices, we might get a better picture. CHECK LEVEL ON THIS _ DISTORTED
04.00 TITLE: COLD WAVES
04.09 Reagan archive My name is Ronald Reagan.Last year the contributions of 16 million Americans to the Crusade for Freedom made possible the Freedom Bell, a symbol of hope and freedom to the peoples of Eastern Europe. And built this powerful 135000 watt Free Europe transmitter, in Western Germany. This station pierces The Iron Curtain with the truth, answering the lies of the Kremlin bringing a message of hope to millionstrapped behind the Iron Curtain.
04.42 For us, Free Europe sounded like a Romanian radio station in exile… the voices coming through the air belonged to people like us.
04.52 Until 1995, the station was located in these headquarters near Englischer Garten, in Munich. I invited the editors to meet here again. Many of them have not visited the building since it was turned into a Journalism University.
05.12 RFE staff meet Did you get younger, girls?
05.26 - We are all museums!- How dare you?-You should tell usthat we are young and beautiful.
05.42 - Don’t use your tongue! Please.
05.52 RFE staff look around building This was the stand by...This was a news studio.This was my office!Here was the administration.This was Armand’s office.And this was Trudi’s office!Mr. Orescu worked here!Give me the key.Down with communism!
06.19 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe I was waiting for Noel Bernardto receive me in his officeand I got hugely surprisedwhen the door flew openand there was this kid...His shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his eyes were incredibly blue, his brown hair combed to the sideand a big smile on his face. “It’s so nice to meet you”,he said, “come in.”I entered his office,I was somehow stiff, amazed,I couldn’t get it together.Could this kid be Noel Bernard?!
07.05 Ioana married Noel Bernard in 1973. Back then, he was the director of the Romanian department, and almost a legend. In a few years, he had brought the ratings of Radio Free Europe in Romania - three times higher. Some 65% of all radio listeners stayed tuned on the Free Europe frequency.
07.30 It was the night of 4th March 1977 in Bucharest. The national television was airing a Bulgarian movie. Out of the blue, the earth started to shake underneath our feet. The broadcast stopped.
07.46 TITLE: 4/3/1977 Romanian earthquake kills 1500
07.51 Meanwhile, at the Radio Free Europe headquarters in Munich, the monitoring service noticed something odd.
07.58 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe Noel received a call informing him that Radio Bucharest wasn’t broadcasting. He immediately went to the radio and the minute he found out what was going on - through a cable received from the US from Colorado about the earthquake - he asked for a frequency he could use for a 24/7 broadcast.
08.25 Cornel BurticaCommunist Party I was the first to get to theCentral Committee after the earthquake. I contacted Ceausescu, who was at that time in Nigeria. I told him what had happened in Bucharest.
08.49 The National Radio and Television were silent all night long. Until next morning, when Ceausescu was back, nobody dared to release an official press communiqué. It was Radio Free Europe who filled the void.
09.05 - Hello, is this Munich?- Yes.- Talk to Romania, you are now connected.- Thank you.
09.17 Ioana Magura-Bernard Radio Free Europe This bridge, an unbelievable bridge, was built over night,linking Romania to Radio Free Europe. In Bucharest there werea lot of teams who were all ears. They listened to the radio, wrote down the names, addresses and phone numbers and then – by car,by motorcycle, by bicycle,they went to those addresses...Then they called back to tell us what they found out, so that we could pass the news to those in the West who wanted to know first.
09.57 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe This was sensational, the connection through the operator with Romania. There were calls from Romania. “Mr. Bernard, I’m so happy to meet you! Me too...”It was an extraordinary complicitythat lasted for a few days, as if this was normality. All this against the background of a disaster. In a way, this complicity in time of disaster always worked between Free Europe and Romania.
10.31 Ceausescu, who cut short his trip to Nigeria, inspected the sites. Natural disasters were excellent propaganda opportunities.
10.41 Propaganda archive My fellow Romanians, this wasmore difficult for us than death;the terrible earthquake, when the earth shook like the leaves from a tree. But we still have hope that we are all humans and that our manhas come back to this country.He fearlessly faced disaster, as he is very brave. He walked solemnlyand sad…
11.28 After the earthquake, the political system seemed to be also shaking. In February, writer Paul Goma launched an open letter on the radio, asking for the human rights to be respected in Romania.
11.42 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I was supposed to call Free Europe and prevent them from broadcasting the letter. I didn’t want to. It seemed to me I was in control at that moment and that I must not give in.
11.58 Ion VianuPsychiatrist In March 1977, I signed Paul Goma’s appeal. This happened two months after it had been published. I have to confess that, like other people who signed this appeal, I was preparing to leave the country. At a certain point,I started to realize that I was going to be arrested.
12.26 A few months later there came the coal miners’ strike and the first free trade unions were created. Radio Free Europe had plenty of topics in 1977.
12.40 Vasile ParaschivPolitical Activist LEVEL LOUD I was kept permanently up to datewith the latest news thanks to the radio: rights, liberties, strikesand marches in Paris. It was almost like I saw it, as if I watched it through my window. As if I could see everything that happened in the West.
13.03 In the 70’s, the atmosphere at the radio and everywhere on the globe was completely different. People didn’t talk about truth or lies anymore, but about a relaxation between the United States and the Soviet block. It was then that Radio Free Europe passed from the CIA under the control of the American Congress. The propaganda got softer and the relations between East and West had a new fresh start.
13.44 Ceausescu meets Former President Jimmy Carter This morning, the people of the United States are honoured by having as our guest a great leader of a great country.
14.03 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe The Americans had a very convenient “censoring” method, so to speak. It was convenient for us and probably for them too. They had a very rigorous reading and translating section for our texts and they also drew various conclusions. Analysis meetings took place every three months.Americans, together with representatives for Romania, drew conclusions about what we did. Sometimes the conclusions were severe: “So much sarcasm!” “This is no way of addressing a chief of state with whom the US has official relations.”We had to offer arguments,to give explanations – in a colloquial manner, but still...Sometimes things got rather steamy... But that happened a long time after the shows had been broadcast.
14.59 Anything that was a threat to the détente between the East and the West had to be avoided. In West Germany, Radio Free Europe had a bad reputation anyway, like any other institution imposed by the Americans and associated with the Cold War.
15.15 archive We are broadcasting the weekly editorial. Noel Bernard, the director of our radio station speaking…
15.21 archive We don’t know who has been writing Ceausescu’s speeches latelybut in some of them there are entire fragments that resist anylogical analysis. Mr. Ceausescu blames the newspapers and the media for the unsettling numberof people who want to emigrate.
15.55 People didn’t have many options. One of them was to leave the country. But a passport, that was hard to get.
16.04 Ceausescu himself perceivedRadio Free Europe as the main reason for his degrading image abroad. He took very personal offence in the radio shows,in the waves that crossed the borders without a passport.It was then when he decided to take radical measures.Unbeknownst, a war was waged. A war against a radio station.
16.37 Monica Lovinescu was attacked in November 1977. A lot of the cultural radio shows she anchored together with her husband, Virgil Ierunca, were recorded here in their apartment in Paris. When I visited her, Mrs. Lovinescu couldn’t get out of bed anymore.
17.01 Monica LovinescuRadio Free Europe I was coming back from the cityand in the garden there were these two Palestinians. One of them came to me and asked me to allow them to come inside. I said no.They started to hit me. They hit my head, my arm. Somebody who was passing by heard my cries and chased them away. So they left their business unfinished. It had spectacular results, but that was the only effect. They ran away.
17.53 Dan ZamfirescuWriter I tell you sincerely, in this war, Cold War if you wish, Radio Free Europe equalled ten divisions.You know Stalin’s famous question: “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” Well, Radio Free Europe equalled several divisions. Monica and Ierunca should have received ranks of field marshals for this battle. They were field marshals of the Cold War.
18.24 Monica LovinescuRadio Free Europe Monica had no power but for the microphone.- But that was a great power... - It was great, indeed...It brought a lot of satisfaction.The fact that you can change somebody’s life from miles away...This is exhilarating.
19.03 Nestor Ratesh has spent the last few years studying the actions of the Securitate against Radio Free Europe,led by the “Ether” group, founded in 1980. The “Ether” was keeping an eye on the eighty employees of the Romanian Department, as well as on their Romanian listeners.
19.23 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer How many people worked in your unit?- The lieutenants, in charge of training, from the central units,internal and external.Well, let’s say about fifteen.Give or take, I can’t remember exactly.- They say it was eight hundred.- Eight hundred what?- Eight hundred people who supposedly worked with this...- Oh, all right, there were one or two extra officers in the territorial departments, in each county, who centralised the information.
20.01 In its first six months of activity, the “Ether” identified 1.000 people who had tried to contact the network. Among these, 400 were young peoplerequesting songs.
20.34 archive Disco ‘76.Presented by Andrei Voiculescu.-Dear friends, today’s program is interesting for you, as well as for me. The singles I have preparedarrived this very morning, so I didn’t have time...
21.00 Andrei VoiculescuRadio Free Europe Noel Bernard knew precisely what to do in order to form a category of listeners who would follow his political programs too. My program had listenerswho were 13, 14 years old, up to 28. As they grew up, they also listened to other programs.
21.33 The Securitate’s files reveal that, in 1983, for example 934 letters from young people were intercepted. Some of the lists of songs made it to their destination though, and were subsequently broadcast by request in Andrei Voiculescu’s show.
21.53 Andrei VoiculescuRadio Free Europe On the post card, in the left upper corner, this listener had drawna blue circle and had written in red letters: “Dear Censorship comrades, please let this post card through, we love music and music is innocent. Please!”
22.26 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer Sometimes we even had to identifyyoung people requesting music. See who they were and so on... It was stupid and absurd. We often didn’t obey these orders, precisely because we realised that it was really meaningless.
music
23.02 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - I have a colleague who told me that, when he was fourteen, he sent a message to Radio Free Europe requesting a song, and the friend supposed to pass on the message turned him in... There was this seclusion... The next day they took him, they caught him, they put him into...- How old was he? Fourteen?- Yes. He was fourteen and they took him.- When did this happen?- Well, I think ’80 or ’81.- I think that he exaggerates. Nobody ever did that.- They didn’t do much to him.They just took him...- I doubt that.- They took him to the Securitateheadquarters where they just slapped him once...- I’m telling you, I never heard about any of my colleagues slapping anybody, not to mention my subordinates.
23.52 Radio Free Europe was also under heavy fire from the Bucharest newspapers. In just two years, over one hundred articles against the radio were published. Meanwhile, the attacks grew fiercer.
24.07 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe On the first of March 1981, the Romanian exile newspaper “BIRE” published an article saying that Noel Bernard was seriously ill, that he could not fulfil his obligations as director anymore. On the same page, below the quoted text Colonel Ion Tiseanu writes in his own handwriting: “Comrade Colonel Bogdan, the information published by BIRE confirms that the measures we took are starting to be effective”.
25.02 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer - At the time when Noel Bernard got ill, there is one document stating that “the measures started to show results”.- Mental condition may affect health, can’t it?
25.26 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE Noel was convinced that in his office which is up the stairs and down the end he had been radiated. Because of his allegations, through the doctors’ office which is downstairs, I had specialists come down here with radioactive detecting equipment.We went through the whole building, we never found any radiation, anywhere…
Music reprieve TOO LOUD
26.14 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe Noel’s state got worse and the subsequent chemotherapy he had was not at all helpful. So late December, a day before Christmas’ Eve, the night of 23 of December, he died.
26.40 archive Death turns a man’s life into a biography. The biography of Noel Bernard has something of the light simplicity of a destiny. He was born and died in the studios of Radio Free Europe. That means, in Romania. Because in the imaginary space of the studio, was the real Romania, which Noel Bernard, this moderate agnostic, entered as into a religion. A strange religion, with its millions of invisible believers who, in the country shackled by history and bad luck, were always waiting for his words, like a sort of redemption.
27.27 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe How come this disease was so picky? How did it only search for its victims in the Romanian department? How could it coincidentally serve the Romanian Securitate so well?
27.52 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer We also have to take into account some people’s desire to feel important. There were some people who constantly claimed they were followed and watched over.
28.13 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe It is in Noel Bernard’s file rather than in the general files about Radio Free Europe that we find the following: “We shall study the station’s buildings and equipment, the security and protection system, the vulnerable spots etc., so we can find ways and concrete solutions to use adequate means to damage and destroy the buildings and equipment of Radio Free Europe by placing explosives, initiating fires etc.”
29.25 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE It was Saturday night, The bomb was at 9:47, 3 minutes later they called me. When I came down here, the street was blocked, police, fire engines everywhere… The building was black because the power was out in most of the area.
29.48 Nestor RateshRadio Free Europe The bomb caused damage and injuries - one of the injured people subsequently died... at the Czech Service. But it was nine o’clock in the evening, on a Saturday, there were few people in the building, so it didn’t have the effects desired by the Securitate. Still, it caused a lot of damage. There was an estimated loss of about four million dollars.
30.23 Richard CummingsChief of Security RFE We didn’t know anything, the investigation never proved anything, it was an unknown person with the bomb… And again, only after 1989 when the Wall came down a STASI man came up with the file copies that he had and sold them to the radio.
30.41 The STASI files contain some documents that were photocopied in 1980 by the Hungarian secret services in a safe house in Budapest. These documents are actually sketches of Free Europe headquarters; they indicate where the transmitters were and feature plans to blow up the buildings. In the ‘90s, Detlev Mehlis, a Berlin prosecutor specialized in counter-terrorism got hold of the documents. He credited Carlos the Jackal and his collaborator Johannes Weinrich for these notes.
31.16 Detlev Mehlis Public Prosecutor We researched these attacks on Radio Free Europe along with the other attacks and we came to the conclusion that the group aroundCarlos and Weinrich was supported by the secret servicesin two states to accomplish these attacks. We are talking about Syria on one hand, and Romania on the other. Bucharest represented one of the headquarters for the group and the logistical support – guns, passports – was very important. It was these passports that made the attacks in the West possible.
32.14 Isabelle Coutant-Peyre Lawyer At our first meeting, I was very impressed by his calm. He didn’t act like a prisoner at all.Carlos is not pursued for whathappened at Radio Free Europe,which was the voice of the CIAin Europe during the Cold War.I think Johannes Weinrichis pursued for that in Germany.
32.44 Ilich Ramirez Sanchez,also known as Carlos the Jackal, is currently serving a life term in an old prison in France. I was not allowed to see him. But I managed to talk to him on the phone. This is the first interview Carlos gives on this matter.
33.06 TITLE: Clairvaux High-Security PrisonVoice of Carlos the Jackal President Ceauşescu,I had a lot of admiration for him.His wife, Elena, was different.I have to say, she was difficult.But I think he was a good man, an honest man, although a little naïve. He was not an intellectual; he was a peasant, a hard-core communist, a patriot. A Romanian who loved his country, who wanted to offer a good life to his people.- But at that time you felt you should help Ceauşescu?- Yes exactly, we had to cooperate, why not? You had a base, not an operational base, but a place where you can have meetings, where you can invite people from abroad for a quiet meeting, where you feel protected... this is always good. We had such bases in about fifteen socialist countries. As Romania was a police state, a rather staunch one, this was no bad thing.
34.12 Detlev Mehlis, Public Prosecutor After investigating these facts, we have no doubt that the attacks on Radio Free Europe were ordered and supported by the Romanian Securitate.
34.30 Voice of Carlos the Jackal We had nothing to do with all that. This is not our level, ok?If we had worked as agents, it would have been better to work for Saddam or for the president of Libya, who had millions, right?The Romanians had nothing...
34.57 At that time, no one believed that the regime in Bucharest was involved with terrorism. Heads of state like Giscard d’Estaing kept visiting Ceausescu. The task of the people from Free Europe was therefore even more difficult. They sought support for the cause with Western journalists. Bernard Poulet was one of the first to have been approached.
35.19 Bernard PouletJournalist It was a very discrete but very efficient work with the media, because little by little it taught me and a lot of other Western journalists the Romanian reality.The French journalists were sometimes a little naïve and easy to manipulate, so it helped them understand that Romanian reality was less nice than the propaganda showed.
35.50 As conditions grew worse, more and more Romanians considered leaving the country.In 1986 alone, 1132 persons were cited by Radio Free Europe as wanting to emigratebut failing to get a passport.
36.06 archive The father stays only in bed; the little girl is wearing five sweaters one on top of the other; the mother can’t write, her hand freezes holding the pencil…
36.17 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe We weren’t cold observers from a distance. But one of the important rules imposed by the American leadership and by our professional position was not to incite things that could spin out of control afterwards. We had no chance of protecting the life or liberty of those people. But we could talk about the elections in Poland, about the attitude of the intellectuals who supported the workers, things that did not happen in Romania. But we never said: “You should do the same”.The example was implicit.The suggestion was implicit.This was one of the tricks and tactics of the propaganda, let’s put it this way. And we did care for the listener. We gave them what they wanted to hear in order to be informed, or just to let off steam.Someone was saying the truth that they didn’t dare to utter.
37.25 After Gorbatchev came to power in 1985, Ceauşescu was suddenly perceived as the most backward leader in all Eastern Europe. Finally, the international community started to acknowledge the criticism of Radio Free Europe against the regime in Bucharest.
37.42 Voice of Josy DubieJournalist I had the feeling that Romaniawas a sort of twilight zone in Europe, so I wanted to see for myself. It was out of the question to go there as a journalist, except for an official invitation, surrounded by the Securitate…So I decided I should go there in secret. Then something extraordinary happened to me, because we drove to Cluj, and when I arrived there the city was dark. The electricity was off... I visited a church, and when I came out, as I went to my car, a woman approached me.
38.21 Doina CorneaProfessor Political Activist I didn’t care about the Securitate. I knocked on the window and I told him: “I am a dissident”. I knew this would get him interested.
38.36 Josy DubieJournalist She gave me a doll and said: “In this doll’s head there is a message that I want to transmit to my daughter, in France. And if you don’t take it, I will never be able to get it out and explain what is happening in this country.
38.52 archive That day, when she left the church, she saw our car. The Belgian plates made her confident. Mrs. Cornea begged us to take this little doll back to the West. In the head, two handwritten notes, written clandestinely, one of which was meant for Radio Free Europe.
39.14 Archive You are listening to the Romanian Program. Mr. President of the State Council, repressive measures, corruption, injustice and disinformation are on the rise everywhere... Fear and uncertainty are also increasing…
39.34 Doina CorneaPolitical Activist And it was very useful. Because without Radio Free Europe I don’t think my dissidence would have been possible.
39.45 Josy DubieJournalist My report was broadcast around the world. It was the first one that showed the reality of the Ceauşescu regime from the inside.He invited political dignitaries, even Belgians went there. They were received as kings, they could not see the reality. This is the difference between an official and a journalist like I was. Now I am a politician, but I was a journalist and I would always look “behind the scenes”. My story showed the sinister reality of this country, of an awful dictator who imposed his will over his subjects, who lived in terrible poverty.
Archive empty food shops
41.09 At the end of 1987,a book was published in the US that struck yet another blow to Ceausescu’s image. The book was by General Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence chief who had defected to the West. In the book, General Pacepa unveils the measures against Free Europe, ordered by Ceausescu. One of the methods they used was exposure to X-rays, often by means of a portable device, that Ceausescu affectionately called “Radu”.
41.45 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe We discovered the streets emptied at the time the book was broadcast. It was split into several broadcasts. Streets emptied because everybody went to listen.
42.02 archive General Pacepa’s book is a horrible book. It shows an ugly, corrupt, illiterate, immoral world.The president curses his ministers, the president’s wife scolds her acolytes and calls them idiots.The ministry of Foreign Affairs behaves like a lackey. It’s a world where people like to drink French champagne and eat cheese and onions. It’s a whole system of ass-kissers, whose houses are bugged, with mikes everywhere, even under the beds. These people are afraid of their two supreme leaders, but they would do anything not to lose the right to enjoy the privileges.
42.52 archive One of the most interesting topicsPacepa’s book deals with is the relation between Ceausescu’s regime and Radio Free Europe.
43.03 archive Yes, there is no way we can be certain this information is true or not.The regime must understand that this radio station cannot be silenced. There are people who disappeared: Emil Georgescu, Noel Bernard, people who are here now may disappear. But the Radio is here to stay, because it is its duty to broadcast. Nothing can prevent it from doing that.
43.52 But Ceausescu refused to die. It seemed an endless nightmare. In ‘88-‘89, things started to change all around Romania. We were the only ones standing still.
44.09 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I felt I lost my mind when I saw what happened the moment the Soviet Union began Perestroika. Ceausescu refused to do that. He said those things had already been done in Romania. All around us communist regimes collapsed like dominos, one by one. But our despair couldn’t show on air. We shouldn’t express it, anyway. It would have meant we incited the people. Romanians had to deal with their own despair. And wait for the right moment. And the right moment came.
44.51 Archive - How dare you shoot at us?!We are Romanians! As Romanian as you!Tanks and guns are on the streets.People are shot.Timisoara, 17th December 1989.
45.14 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer This should have never happened.
45.31 Romania, 1989, Ceausescu’s era.
45.39 Five days after the revolt in Timisoara, people took to the streets in Bucharest. Like during the 1977 earthquake, the link between the radio and its listeners climaxed once again.
45.56 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe It was like a great fresco, or like a theatre performance. The Good on one side, so weak that it might not prevail, The Evil on the other side. The confrontation was live, even if we were 2000 km away.
46.15 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe There was this continuous to and fro. We were under constant pressure. We felt like soldiers on the barricades. Even if the news were our only bullets.
46.35 My brothers, thanks be to God, we are now in the television studio. We managed to get here behind the tanks...
46.44 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe It was clear television would defeat us, the radio, because it could add images to the information. Images have a deeper impact than words alone.
47.02 archive We will ask Luiza Cunea to read the first newscast of free Romania.- Bucharest: Nicolae Ceausescu was released from his position.Emanuel Valeriu, our fellow journalist, told us on the phone that today, around 12 o’clock,Ceausescu left the headquarters of the Central Committee by helicopter. Hundreds of thousands of people in the square shouted: “Don’t let the dictators flee.They must be put to trial.”
47.32 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe Freedom came to earth! It is Judgment Day! We can go home.Romania is now in Europe.Europe is unconditionally free.There was no need anymore for a metaphor of Europe in Munich, surrounded by walls and paid for by the Americans. Europe was now Free. It was our dream come true and we were still young!
48.01 archive We won!!! We won!!!
48.09 Maybe Free Europe won the battle. But their victory was the beginning of the end.
48.18 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe I came to Romania. I started a radio station called Radio Total.But I didn’t fit in. I had the feeling there was no dialogue between me and the others, even if we spoke the same language. I thought it was my fault. Maybe I was the one who had changed. I couldn’t find my Romania. When I realized that, in 2002, I said to myself: “This is it, it’s your fault, you’d better leave.” So I left.
48.58 Emil HurezeanuRadio Free Europe In all those years, we didn’t know in which world we lived. The focus on Romania, on information, feeling all that fear and uncertainty, the lack of normal communication with our country...Romania followed you everywhere, it cast a shadow on every experience we had outside Radio Free Europe.
49.28 Neculai Constantin MunteanuRadio Free Europe It prevented us from getting in contact with the reality we experienced – when we went shopping, to a restaurant, to the cinema. We had a comfortable life, no doubt, but slightly schizophrenic. After having spoken for ten hours about Romania and all the misery there, you couldn’t shut the door behind you and enter a free world.It was not easy to bear.Even when I watched TV,I watched shows about the communist world, movies from the communist world. We were living in the same sauce we had left behind. There was no other way, because that was my job and it was my life. Maybe it would have been easier if I had chosen another way. I would have spoken better German, I would have had stronger connections. But this was my destiny and I had to follow it.
50.31 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer The people at Free Europe pretended to be brave. If they had been here they wouldn’t have acted like this. It was easy to preach. But what if they had stayed and acted from inside the country... They fled and called themselves dissidents. We had no genuine dissidents, that’s it.
51.00 The questions about the attacks on Free Europeremained unanswered.Some of the people on the radio “converted” to TV hosts. But it’s not only them. Some of the Securitate officers are TV stars, too. General Plesita headed the Counter-Intelligence during the attacks in 1981.
51.26 TV footage Whom did you want to kill at RFE? Which ones did you want to kill at Free Europe?- Do you want me to answer this question laughing? All of them.- It was Ceausescu’s order, wasn’t it?- No way, do you think Ceausescu took care of every detail every day?- Was it your personal initiative?- No, it was part of my job as Chief of Foreign Intelligence. It was a professional obligation.- Who chose the way you acted against Free Europe? Many of these attacks were failures. The results were rather scandals.- There was no scandal at all, they were very well done, my only regret is they were not at a larger scale. Absolutely! - Meanwhile rules have changed, some of the people from RFE...- It changed for the naïve.
52.24 General Plesita was investigated several times about these statements but was never indicted. When I talked to Carlos, I asked him his opinion on this.
52.37 Voice of Carlos the Jackal - But why is Plesita in prison?- He’s not in prison...- Really? I am pleased to hear that...- Why?- He’s a nice guy, I liked him a lot.He drank like a sponge, you know.We could talk freely, the two of us. We walked in the parks, where there were no microphones.Our conversation was difficult, as he didn’t speak Russian very well.But I considered him a nice guy.He offered me a gift for my birthday, he gave me two Soviet shot guns, I liked them a lot. It was like Che Guevara. We offered each other presents. It was the Latin spirit, it felt like home. It was good.
53.28 Neither Carlos, nor Weinrich will be probably indicted for the attack against RFE, but they will stay behind bars for the rest of their natural lives. The world has changed since then, Carlos has converted to Islam. As yet, there is no technical explanation for how the three directors of RFE were allegedly irradiated. The theory about “Radu”, described by Pacepa, does not hold water: it is impossible to secretly transport a powerful radioactive machine. But at the end of 2006, a former KGB officer was assassinated in London with a radioactive substance put in his food. After all these years, Litvinenko’s poisoning offers a possible explanation.
54.16 Ioana Magura-BernardRadio Free Europe Knowing how many people listened to RFE, I hoped the Romanians learned more about democracy, freedom, responsibility.
54.38 Ilie MerceSecuritate Officer I haven’t changed after ’89 and I don’t think man can fundamentally change overnight, or after one month. The real man stays the same. This idea of a change of mentality change that certain elitists and analysts talk about is nothing but rubbish. This is the entrance to the meeting room, of the Deputies’ Chamber.- You are an opposition member of Parliament now.- Yes, I am. We want to gain power to put things in order in this country. I believe we are the only party that can do it. We are the only ones who are not corrupted. We are not involved in any fishy business. We are not the Mob, we don’t jeopardise the national economy.
55.53 This is Radio Free Europe.Dear listeners, good morning.You are now listening to the first radio show, broadcast until 9 o’clock on short waves: 31, 41 and 49 m, and on the following frequency: 9660, 7165 and 5985 KHz…
A film by Alexandru Solomon
Adapted for Journeyman Pictures by Keely Stucke