By Tatiana Niculescu, Romania Editor, 9 November 2004

Are you looking for new stories to broadcast? Then come to Romania.

From political stories to animal stories, from football stories to religious stories, from outrageous stories to funny stories, there is more on offer here than you would expect.

Wherever you go, whoever you meet, there is a story to be told. And in this country any story can be part of a conspiracy theory – your own professional story included.

Listen to this: at the end of last year several former BBC reporters in Bucharest decided to protest at the restructuring of the Romanian language service of the BBC in London.

They organised a local press campaign accusing the BBC of being the broadcasting arm of the Romanian ruling party in its political battle against the opposition. The restructuring, the protesters argued, had been decided under political pressure from Bucharest.

Money from the wall

When I arrived here in March, after eight years with the BBC in London, I learned from a weekly newspaper that I was myself an instrument of the Romanian government.

I couldn’t complain since that was why I loved Romania and decided to return: for its cocktail of wishful thinking and reality, its western aspiration and oriental acting, for its Latin attitude and desire to pursue a dream.

From our Bucharest office I can see the centre of the capital covered in leaves. Autumn here has a special smell and a Turner-like light. Colour is everywhere.

Restaurants have opened and new houses and business centres built. The grey socialist blocks of flats where the majority of the population used to live have been painted in vivid colours. Supermarkets have taken the place of the old state shops.

In a short time people have got used to debit and credit cards. Cash points have been installed. ‘Money comes now from a wall,’ amazed grannies say. Foreign banks advertise mortgages and personal loans – a new concept to people of my parents’ generation.

Young people want rapid change. They go to work in the west and come back telling their families about the good and bad of that lifestyle.

Press campaign calmed down

In June, the liberal democrat opposition almost won the local elections here. This surprised both the opposition and the government. Probably, it was much less of a surprise for voters who had experienced life in a different country.

When I left Romania many years ago our Bucharest team had five reporters. Now I’m running an office of almost 20 staff.

After the restructuring in London and the completion of technical work in Bucharest, we were given less than a month to prepare for the broadcast of our first programmes from Bucharest in April.

I am still recovering from that experience.

In fewer than two months we have changed our news bulletin format and introduced a new money programme. In less than four months we have had the first technical and editorial evaluation.

Now we are preparing to launch our own FM frequency. The press campaign has calmed down but you never know when it might start again.

With the general election approaching at the end of this month it will be an interesting time.

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