Academia Caţavencu is a Romanian satirical magazine founded in 1991 and made famous by its investigative journalism. Academia Caţavencu also owns Radio Guerrilla , an FM radio station with national coverage ; 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 Caţavencu press group announced it was being acquired by Realitatea Media, owners of Realitatea TV, and controlled by controversial and elusive businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vântu. Vântu himself has often been a target of enquiries by Caţavencu journalists.
Name
Nae Caţavencu is a character in Ion Luca Caragiale's 1883 comedy O scrisoare pierdută. An unscrupulous, demagogue politician, Caţavencu uses his newspaper Răcnetul Carpaţilor to blackmail politicians of the opposing party with a compromising love letter that he finds.
History
In its current form, Academia Caţavencu was founded in 1991, by a team of humourists, investigators, and literates headed by poet and former dissidentMircea Dinescu. Part of the team had previously edited two short-lived satirical papers, Caţavencu Incomod and Caţavencu Internaţional. Dinescu was editor-in-chief until 1998, when he resigned and went on to create his own publications, Aspirina săracului, and Plai cu boi, a monthly satirical magazine parodying the style of Playboy.
Current activities
Academia Caţavencu 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 Caţavencu published as supplements two parody issues of Scânteia, 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, whose high members were protagonists of the Caţavencu special issues. Apart from political issues, Academia Caţavencu organises and/or sponsors a number of cultural and environmental initiatives:
Marian Vanghelie - he has poor grammatical skills, as coined by Vanghelie's frequent and indiscriminate use of Care este, as a predicate for singular and plural subjects alike.
