Dan MV Chiticdanchitic.ro
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In the Mirror of the Press

A study of the press coverage, 2010 – 2026

I have gathered on this page, in chronological order, the press articles, the television programmes and the video appearances in which the press wrote or spoke about my public activity — from the incident at Neptun in August 2010 to this day. The press has reflected me in its mirror: sometimes faithfully, sometimes distorted, here and there with ill intent. I have hidden nothing — I have included both the material that attacks me and the material that agrees with me, each labelled transparently according to its tone — critical favourable neutral — and each with a direct link to the source, so that the reader may verify the content and the context himself and judge for himself. I have not been able to count and set out here the hundreds of appearances in television studios over the past sixteen years: most of them have left no indexable trace — the programmes were never put online, and the broadcasters’ archives are not public — so that the list below contains only what can still be found and verified today. Links marked with * could not be verified automatically at the date of compilation; for links that have become inactive, consult web.archive.org.

General synthesis

My public visibility took shape over sixteen years around five great landmarks of time and theme:

  1. August 2010 – The “Cireșica” incident with Traian Băsescu — the starting point of my public notoriety, after the altercation at Neptun, when I publicly accused the sitting President of having slapped me.
  2. 2018–2019 – The Offshore Act and the National Movement — my campaigns for the protection of the natural resources, for the revision of the oil royalties and for the support of domestic capital.
  3. 2020–2021 – The protests and actions against the COVID-19 restrictions — I challenged the health measures and the state of alert through memoranda filed with the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman, together with other lawyers.
  4. 2021–2023 – The sovereignist initiatives, the Sovereignty Act and “RoExit” — I promoted legislative initiatives on national sovereignty and political alliances, and was the protagonist of widely reported incidents in Parliament.
  5. 2023–Present – Commentator on constitutional law and highly publicised cases — talk shows on questions of constitutional law and legal representation in intensely publicised causes.

An analysis of media perception (2010 – present)

Tone of the itemIn the list belowThe profile of the publications and the manner of the coverage
Critical30 · 17%Mainstream, pro-European and investigative press (G4Media, HotNews, Digi24, Radio Free Europe, Adevărul, Ziare.com, Newsweek, Veridica, Aktual24, Podul). It presents me as a controversial figure, associated with eurosceptic (RoExit), corona-sceptic or nationalist discourse. In 2010 the pro-presidential channels labelled me a political provocateur.
Neutral45 · 25%Agencies and dailies that report the fact as such, without colouring it: Agerpres, Mediafax, Știrile ProTV, Jurnalul, DCNews, Capital, Clujust. Here belong the documents as well — judgments, package leaflets, communiqués.
Favourable104 · 58%Conservative and sovereignist press, legal publications and talk shows (Lumea Justiției, ActiveNews, Antena 3 — in 2010, România TV, Marius Tucă Show / Gândul, Cotidianul, R3media, Ecopolitic, România Liberă, CorectNews). It describes me as a “patriot lawyer”, a defender of fundamental rights, of national sovereignty and of the country’s own economic resources.

The figures above count the items in this list, not their echo. They must be read together with an observation that turns their meaning round: the critical items come almost all from the publications with the largest circulation and the widest audience, the favourable ones from small, niche publications. Hence, although in this list the favourable items are three times as many as the critical ones, the image that reached the general public was overwhelmingly the critical one.

Stage 1 · August 2010The “Cireșica” incident / Traian Băsescu

The context: on 22–23 August 2010, at the “Cireșica” bar in the resort of Neptun, I publicly accused President Traian Băsescu of having struck me with the back of his hand after I had reproached him with the state of the country. The Presidential Administration denied any physical contact. The subject dominated the press in the days that followed — and part of that press took over the official version uncritically or attacked me directly.

The judicial epilogue of the incident: from the shelving of the complaint to the victory at the European Court of Human Rights

Stage 2 · 2018–2019The Offshore Act and the National Movement

The context: in those years I was one of the voices of the civic campaign against the Offshore Act in its initial form; I organised the #RomaniaFirst rallies for the resources of the Black Sea and co-founded the National Alliance Party (PAN). It was then, too, that I publicly raised the question of the secret protocols, the role of the intelligence services and the cost of unconditional membership in outside structures.

Stage 3 · 2020–2021The protests and the actions against the COVID-19 restrictions

The context: in those two years I was one of the visible leaders of the current critical of the state of emergency, the state of alert, the quarantine act and the green certificate. I filed memoranda with the Ombudsman (together with Mr Gheorghe Piperea), organised and supported protests, contested fines and sued Facebook for the suspension of my account. Part of the press reported my arguments; another part labelled me, with no right of reply, a “conspiracy theorist” or a “mouthpiece of Moscow”.

Video appearances from 2020–2021

Stage 4 · 2021–2023The sovereignist initiatives, the Sovereignty Act and “RoExit”

The context: in January 2021 I launched the citizens’ initiative for a “Sovereignty Act”, later filed in Parliament and definitively rejected in June 2022; I worked with George Simion (AUR) at the anti-certificate protests; I founded the Coalition for the Nation party, launched the “Sovereignty Constitution” project and brought together the “Romanian Sovereignist Bloc” (November 2023).

Video appearances from 2021–2023

Thematic archives (aggregators)

Stage 5 · 2023–PresentCommentator on constitutional law and highly publicised cases

The context: since 2023 I have been a constant presence in talk shows on questions of constitutional law (Marius Tucă Show / Gândul, Realitatea Plus, Antena 3 CNN) and have represented clients in intensely publicised causes: the challenges relating to the annulment of the presidential election of December 2024 and the “Second Round Back” proceedings, the challenges concerning Călin Georgescu’s candidacy, the defence of Cezar Avrămuță (“the Dacian Standard-Bearer”) and of the lawyer Mihai Rapcea.

Video appearances from 2023 to the present

A note on method. This study was made through systematic searches in the search engines, in the archives of the publications and on the video platforms, on the basis of more than 80 distinct queries, covering the period August 2010 – August 2026. Some 190 unique press, television and video items were identified. Absolute exhaustiveness for every article written in the local press or on blogs over sixteen years remains technically unattainable, because of dynamic archiving and the deletion of old domains — for example, the original 2010 television recordings from Realitatea TV and Antena 3 are no longer available online — but the selection above covers all the major landmarks that shaped my image in the mirror of the press. For links that have since become inactive, a search in the web.archive.org archive is recommended.

Compiled: August 2026 · danchitic.ro

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