Remembering Silvia Pintea: A Pioneer in Romanian Journalism and Television

Silvia Pintea was a journalist all her life, and in recent years, after she retired, she was an active member in a national union of journalists.

After 1989, she was the first announcer at TVR Cluj and editor-in-chief at Romanian Television. She made several historical documentaries that entered the institution’s archive, after being awarded with important prizes at several professional competitions.

At the beginning of this year, Silvia Pintea had a mild stroke, which did not endanger her life. Her way of being, always with a smile on her face and ready to come to the aid of anyone, made her overcome this diagnosis well.

Her colleagues from TVR Cluj told us that Silvia started to feel sick and went to the hospital, where she was hospitalized.

“He had two other small brain attacks. We talked to the neurologist and he told us that there is no danger and that he will get over this medical episode. Then, suddenly, on May 23rd, I received the news that Silvia had died. She was hospitalized urgently and there she had a cardiorespiratory arrest,” said one of the journalists from TVR Cluj.

He was the soul of TVR Cluj

Colleagues, friends and those who knew her wrote messages of condolences on the death of the well-known journalist from Cluj, Silvia Pintea.

“He was one of the reporters who were on the ground during the days of the Revolution and participated in the opening of TVR Cluj in those troubled moments. May God rest her,” wrote colleagues from TVR Cluj on Facebook.

He wrote about the early days of a free press

Silvia Pintea wrote about the moment of the resumption of activity at TVR Cluj and how the press was made in those days.

“On January 3, 1990, the territorial television station from Cluj was opened, as a studio of the Romanian Radiotelevision. I was like a pirate post. Legally, the TVR Cluj studio does not exist. I worked at the History Museum. I did not have the necessary training, five years ago I had been an editor at Radio, which had closed down. I didn’t have the professional training for television, I didn’t have the necessary equipment, but the determination to do Television in Cluj was immense for me and a few enthusiastic colleagues. In the morning we did radio shows, in the afternoon we presented the news on television. Now it seems like real madness to me, but then the revolutionary effervescence was wonderful. Don’t ask me what I think now… But we were young and confident!”, said Silvia Pintea.