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Academia Catavencu
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Academia Catavencu ("The Catavencu Academy") is a Romanian satirical magazine founded in 1991, and made famous by its investigative journalism. Academia Catavencu also owns Radio Guerilla, an FM radio station broadcasting in Bucharest, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi; 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, a daily newspaper.
In a surprise move, on May 29, 2006, Academia Catavencu press group announced it was being acquired by Realitatea Media, owners of Realitatea TV, and controlled by controversial and elusive businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vāntu.
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Encyclopedia
Academia Catavencu ("The Catavencu Academy") is a Romanian satirical magazine founded in 1991, and made famous by its investigative journalism. Academia Catavencu also owns Radio Guerilla, an FM radio station broadcasting in Bucharest, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi; 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, a daily newspaper.
In a surprise move, on May 29, 2006, Academia Catavencu press group announced it was being acquired by Realitatea Media, owners of Realitatea TV, and controlled by controversial and elusive businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vāntu. Vāntu himself has often been a target of enquiries by Catavencu journalists.
Name
Nae Catavencu is a character in Ion Luca Caragiale's 1883 comedy O scrisoare pierduta ("A Lost Letter"). An unscrupulous, demagogue politician, Catavencu uses his newspaper Racnetul Carpatilor ("The Shout of the Carpathians") to blackmail politicians of the opposing party with a compromising love letter that he finds.
History
In its current form, Academia Catavencu was founded in 1991, by a team of humourists, investigators, and literates headed by poet and former dissident Mircea Dinescu. Part of the team had previously edited two short-lived satirical papers, Catavencu Incomod and Catavencu International.
Dinescu was editor-in-chief until 1998, when he resigned and went on to create his own publications, Aspirina saracului ("The poor man's aspirin" - a joking reference to sexual intercourse), and Plai cu boi, a monthly satirical magazine parodying the style of Playboy.
Current activities
Academia Catavencu have been long-time press freedom advocates. They maintain a "press monitoring agency", a watchdog against manipulation through mass-media.
During the 2004 election campaign, Academia Catavencu published as supplements two parody issues of Scānteia (the old-time Romanian Communist Party newspaper), containing reprints of articles written by important current day politicians during the Communist era. Almost 40,000 copies were bought in bulk from newsagents, along with other newspapers. The alleged perpetrators were representatives of the then-governing Social Democratic Party (PSD), whose (mostly former Communist) high members (including founder and former President of Romania Ion Iliescu) were protagonists of the Catavencu special issues.
Apart from political issues, Academia Catavencu organises and/or sponsors a number of cultural and environmental initiatives:
They also develop their own stereotypes and nicknames of the politicians, such as:
- Ion Iliescu "Nelu Cotrocelu" or "Bunicuta" ("The Granny") - associated with the Cotroceni Palace owl
- Adrian Nastase "Bombonel" ("Candy Boy") - in reference to his alleged homosexuality
- Traian Basescu "Popeye Marinarul" ("Popeye the Sailor") - due to Basescu's former job as a commercial navy captain
- Theodor Stolojan "The robot", "Robocop" or "Frankie" - due to his voice and comic resemblance to the classic image of Frankenstein's monster
- Petre Roman - suggests that he is rather popular among the female workers of the APACA textile factory in Bucharest (who shouted once: Nu vrem bani! Nu vrem valuta! Vrem pe Roman sa ne futa! ("We don't want money! We don't want hard currency! We want Roman to fuck us!").
- Gheorghe Dumitrascu - suggests that he washes infrequently
- Nicolae Vacaroiu "Votcaroiu" - allegedly heavy drinker of "Saniuta", a low-grade brand of vodka (votca)
- Serban Mihailescu "Miki Spaga" ("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.
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