Curierul Național Partners with CCTV

On October 20, 2021, the Romanian business daily Curierul Național announced a partnership with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV (中國中央電視台) to publish daily Romanian-language news from China. The announcement described the deal as “unique” in the Romanian media landscape and said it would prioritize content “exclusively provided by CCTV” on business and investment opportunities, alongside coverage of foreign policy, the economy, health, and education. It noted that CCTV operates 18 thematic channels, including two in 4K and 8K format, and an international channel, CGTN, also broadcast in Romania. The outlet’s resulting “Current Events China” section is branded as produced in partnership with CCTV+, the international digital media arm of China’s state broadcaster, but individual articles within the section are bylined to both CCTV and China Radio International — a separate PRC state broadcaster — indicating the “CCTV partnership” draws on multiple outlets under China’s state broadcasting apparatus, both of which sit under China Media Group, itself directly under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. The announcement noted this was not Curierul Național’s first such tie: the outlet is a founding member of the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP), a Xinhua News Agency-initiated news-exchange platform launched in 2019 spanning news agencies and publications across Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania.