The Silence of a Journalist

A key figure in the local history of the events from December 1989, Iosif Costinaş was known as avid supporter of the Revolution’s initial aims and of their realization, as well as active member of the press. A person who practiced a remarkable passion for truth and justice throughout the incessant investigation of the archives that document the events in Timisoara. There are seven years now since the same city lost this much appreciated photographer, journalist, dramatist and novelist.

The story of his disappearance began in June 2002, when the report of his missing triggered a fervent search developed by the local authorities, reaching as far as Maramureş and Constanţa. The investigation stopped in 2003, when the journalist was officially declared dead. His remains had been found near the train station in Pişchia, some tens of kilometers away from Timişoara. However, the finding was not fully convincing for many of those who were aware of his activities. And for this reason the second edition of DocumFest represents an exceptional occasion to celebrate the memory of Iosif Costinaş.

“What we are trying to do is precisely this: remember him exactly as he was. And that is because he did not «die»! He just disappeared”, argues fellow journalist Robert Şerban.

As Lucia Hossu Longin – who directed the documentary The Truth Will Get You Killed, centered on Iosif Costinaş – explains, he was “one of the few who believed a revolution cannot end up by betraying its founding dream”. In an interview she made with Costinaş, he confessed about how, following the publishing of an extremely incisive article named Obedient Commanders, Politruks and Counterspies, he received a phone call saying: “I’ll put three bullets in your head!” In reply, the journalist recommended to the threatening stranger to use only one bullet: “the prices went so high, not only on bullets, but on everything else,” he said.

Journalist Lia Lucia Epure – who also knew Bebe, as friends used to call him – recalls how he had “a tremendous talent for giving nicknames”. “I was Sunshine”, she says. Traian Orban (president of the Revolution Memorial Association) was Saddam, George Şerban was Gyuri, Viorel Marineasa was the Mad Beast, Aurel Turcuş – Carpathian Snail, and his friend Ion Crăciun was John, small Bolshevik. All were nicknames that revealed a keen sense of intuition and a tinge of humor in characterizing each person.

The key role of Iosif Costinaş is easily identified inside the movement from 1989, and even more so in the events that followed it. As writer and journalist Viorel Marineasa explains, “he was on the street in ’89, but he actually came forward after the Revolution, through the investigations he made on what happened behind the scenes, even if he didn’t go up in the Opera House balcony, as Ion Monoran did. Among several other sensitive issues, he investigated what happened in Freidorf. He asked too many questions and he got to know too much.”

Cristina Talpă
Laura Moisei