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This site presents the journalistic investigations of Gazeta Sporturilor, part of the ”Collective” documentary film directed by Alexander Nanau. The film was designated the best European documentary in 2020, nominated for two categories ("Best Documentary Feature" and "Best International Feature Film") for Oscar 2021 Awards, nominated for BAFTA 2021 and acclaimed as “The best film about journalism since «All The President’s Men»” (The Times) and “One of the greatest journalism movies of all times” (Indiewire)
The world premiere of “Collective” took place in September 2019, at the Venice FIlm Festival. The Italian press wrote that ”by watching Collective, one realizes the importance of information that is not submissive to economical and political power”. It was the odyssey’s beginning for a movie which engaged, among others, an entire newsroom and an investigations team. The journalists granted access to director Alexander Nanau to their non-heroical and necessary work, in one of the turmoil moments not only for Romania, but also for the worldwide liberal democracy, as an idea of good governance practice. ”In a moment of terrible turmoil for the future of the worldwide press, (Collective) is a key representation of the reason for which this profession matters now more than ever”, wrote Los Angeles Times about the investigations presented in the ”Collective” movie.
”I would have liked to know how a sports newspaper that usually features soccer teams in its headlines cultivated such an astonishing investigative team”, stated renowned film critic Manohla Dargis in The New York Times.
This dedicated site presents to the public the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper, the newsroom’s tradition for journalistic investigations, the editorial team and almost 200 investigation articles created over less than a year and a half.
was the year of the first major investigation undergone by Cătălin Tolontan, the leader of the journalists’ team in ”Collective”
million euros were recovered by the Romanian state as a result of the criminal files initiated from the journalistic investigations of Gazeta Sporturilor
year-old was Răzvan Luțac, the youngest member of the investigations’ team, in 2016, the moment when the articles were published
trophies and 42 nominations has ”Collective” been granted until this update, on February 23, 2021
The first unveiling in the investigation undergone by Gazeta Sporturilor appeared in the newspaper three days after the devastating fire from the club. On November 2, 2015, due to several doctors from Floreasca Emergency Hospital who discussed with the journalists, the public found out that Romania had a modern severe burns unit but it was inoperative, although it had been inaugurated twice by the Minister for Health! During that period and for the years to follow, the investigations team followed the companies that were involved along with the evolution of the criminal file that resulted from this case. At the beginning of March 2020, the file reached its 24th hearing in court, at the Bucharest Tribunal. Witnesses are still being heard.
Read HERE all articles
On November 5, 2015, Gazeta Sporturilor began publishing on a daily basis information and documents about the manner in which the firmen had controlled, approved and acknowledged the situation of the Colectiv nightclub, despite the public statements made by the heads of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU). The journalistic investigation started from the “sponsorships” the firemen would receive and unfolded all the way to the institution’s lies. Then the investigations team revealed, for the months and years to follow, further unknown aspects of the rescue operation, like denying the involvement of private ambulance cars or hiding the official video recording of the Colectiv intervention, done by the firemen themselves, which was recovered and brought to the public by the journalists in October 2019.
Read HERE all articles
“Good afternoon! I am a doctor at the Burn Hospital and I witness powerlessly the masquerade that is being sold to the people on all the channels and through all the media. If you are interested in finding out the truth, give me a sign, only if you are genuinely interested, as my ability to trust is almost exhausted”, that is how the first message from doctor Camelia Roiu sounded in November 2015, addressed to the investigations team of Gazeta Sporturilor. The newspaper got in touch with her, several discussions were held, the team verified the doctor’s statements and the provided documents and that was the starting point for the collapse of the Romanian state propaganda mechanism regarding the cause of death of the young people from Colectiv. Doctors from other hospitals also confirmed situations of infections with hospital germs, like the case of Alexandru Hogea, who died despite having burns only on 15% of his body, a case that appears in the beginning and at the end of the “Collective” movie. Later on during 2016, Camelia Roiu made a public appearance as an integrity whistleblower, becoming a role model for other doctors, public clerks and people from private companies who chose to become sources and to unveil to the journalists all over the country the abuses, the misconducts or the frauds they discover.
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Barely one month after the tragedy at the Colectiv nightclub, Gazeta Sporturilor found out that Hexi Pharma, the most important producer of disinfectants in Romania, who was the provider for 350 hospitals, would counterfeit its products from the factory. Searching for the second source and documenting the story lasted 4 months. From the moment the first of its 160 episodes was published, the journalistic investigation led not only to street demonstrations against corruption, the resignation of the health minister, the change of norms, the opening of a criminal file and the acknowledgement of the Romanian Intelligence Service, but also to an unprecedented call to arms for Romanians regarding the way their civic commitment is necessary so that the state is held responsible. Illustrated by Alexander Nanau in his documentary movie “Collective”, the Hexi Pharma investigation became the main plot of the movie about which Los Angeles Times wrote “it resonates in any city or nation where the weakest and neediest suffer”.
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Probably the most renowned corruption case among hospital managers in Romania is the one of director Florin Secureanu. Having held the managerial position for a decade at the Malaxa Hospital, subordinated to the Bucharest City Hall, Secureanu would take money directly from the clinic’s cashier and he kept doing that for over 1,000 days! Based on the information and documents provided by the internal employees, among which accountants Nicoleta Ciobanu and Laura Nitu accepted to appear in the Collective movie, Gazeta Sporturilor has revealed over tens of episodes a plurality of the corruption routes: from fake contracts to holidays covered by the hospital’s providers. The case was investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) and sent to trial. While in the separated case the 7 persons who confessed their crime have already been convicted, the file involving the three persons who do not admit their crimes, Secureanu being one of them, is still under hearing at the Bucharest Tribunal.
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On July 14, 2016, six months after the tragedy from Colectiv, Gazeta Sporturilor published a video recording who shocked the public opinion, with a patient admitted in the intensive care unit of the Burn Hospital. His open wounds on his head were swarming with larvae. The patient died shortly after. He was not the only patient in such condition. Immediately after the movie went public, the Public Health Services, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry for Health acknowledged the situation and the latter took the decision of closing down the intensive care unit. That was the moment when minister Vlad Voiculescu publicly admitted that the Romanian state lacks the capacity to take care of severe burns patients and from that moment on the patients have been transferred abroad for treatment. Sector 1 City Hall refurbished and updated the intensive care unit of the Burn Hospital, which currently holds 5 individual wards but still with a common bathtub for washing the wounds of the burn patients.
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Shortly after the unveiling related to the cover up of the nosocomial infections and the consequences of using biocides produced by Hexi Pharma, Gazeta Sporturilor began investigating several cases that were not connected to Colectiv but which exposed the tragedies generated by the lies and the ignorance from the medical system.
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”There is a moment when I felt like hiding under my seat: when Tolontan and his colleagues are shown a secretly filmed video of maggots wriggling in a patient’s incompetently dressed wound. If that was in a fictional film, the metaphor would be dismissed as too obvious”, wrote The Guardian about the work of the investigations team at Gazeta Sporturilor.
