Romanian Political Journals from Transylvania and Hungary and their Lawsuits (1867-1914)
Romanian Political Journals from Transylvania and Hungary and their Lawsuits (1867-1914)

Summary/Abstract: The paper offers an introductory overview of the Romanian political press in Hungary between 1867 and 1918, stressing on its constant collisions with the law, on their negative results affecting the publishing process and on the strategies employed by the minority political press in order to avoid or minimize financial and personnel lose. Given the nature of political press articles, it was relatively easy for the authorities to find offences, thus the Romanian journalists had to carefully shape their phrases in order to avoid prosecutions. On the other hand, being the subject of a press trial helped the accused gain prestige among his co-nationals and sometimes even climb the stairs of public notoriety into the upper level of the political elite. Along with their publishers, the newspapers also enjoyed certain benefits, as the nationalistic agitation raised their sales and income. Thus, the press offences and the related press trials can be approached from both sides: underlining their negative effects on the newspapers’ financial and personnel situation, but also their less studied positive side-effects on the publishers’ public status and on the publication’s image among its subscribers.

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