Disappearance of Elodia Ghinescu

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The disappearance of Elodia Ghinescu was a heavily covered missing-person-become-murder case in Romania; according to several news sources, it was the most covered case of this kind in the history of mass media in the country.[1][2][3][4]

Elodia was a lawyer, for whose disappearance and alleged murder in August 2007 her husband, policeman Cristian Cioacă, was arrested on 5 December 2012. He was sentenced on 2 July 2013 to 22 years in jail, although he continues to maintain his innocence. The case is still undergoing the appeals process; most recently, on 3 December 2013, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided that Cioacă should remain in custody while the appeals are ongoing.[5]

According to the prosecution, the motive for the murder was jealousy caused by an extramarital affair that Elodia had; her disappearance occurred right after she returned from a trip to Dubai with her alleged lover, a former SPP officer,[6] who testified in court to their relationship.[7] Although Elodia's body was not found, the prosecution invoked forensic evidence, including blood droplets found in the couple's apartment and on a number of objects formerly found in the apartment, later discovered in a ravine.[6]

Several television stations were officially warned by the National Audiovisual Council (the Romanian telecommunications agency) for their inappropriate coverage of the case,[8][9] and some of them, including OTV and Curier TV were fined for their unbalanced coverage.[10][11] The 2009 Media Sustainability Index noted that "From 2007 to 2008, OTV organized several hundred so-called episodes about the disappearance of Elodia Ghinescu, a lawyer who married a police officer. In one episode, Diaconescu [the OTV owner/host] instigated a hacker to break into Ghinescu’s e-mail inbox and show her personal messages on the air. Ghinescu became a popular icon, although she continues to be missing. Meanwhile, the mainstream media took over the case and followed OTV’s example in revealing personal details about her family."[12] Writer Radu Paraschivescu described the Elodia case having become "the codename for a massive operation of prostituting the idea of television".[13]

References

External links

Press coverage in includes numerous articles in the Romanian press and TV. This is just a sample from those sources that are better organized (using tags):

See also


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