Camelia Checeanu
Camelia Checeanu is a senior account executive in the public affairs group of Fleishman-Hillard’s Washington, D.C. office. She possesses a strong background in media relations and public affairs. Working at Fleishman-Hillard, Ms. Checeanu has pitched reporters and managed relationships with key U.S. media (trades publications, congressional and mainstream print and broadcast) and bloggers.
Before joining Fleishman-Hillard in Washington, D.C., Ms. Checeanu managed media and local government relations as a communications manager for the League for the Protection of Human Rights in Timisoara, Romania. She also co-founded and acted as interim director of the Balkan Parliament International Conference at the American University in Bulgaria, worked as public relations officer for The Open Society Foundation Bucharest (of the international Soros network) and wrote bylined articles for Capital, Romania’s main weekly financial journal.
On the eve of the second round of presidential elections in Romania, the New York Times dedicates the article “Grim Romanians Brighten Over a German Connection” to the presumptive next prime-minister, Klaus Johannis, the mayor of Sibiu, a mid-sized Transylvanian city that has enjoyed an unlikely era of prosperity under his two successive mandates. Johannis is actually not German, but a Translylvanian Saxon, but that difference is of little importance to Romanians who have always been in awe of German efficiency, prosperity and orderliness, a fascination manifested main…
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Recognizing that as a remote blogger it’s sometimes difficult to convey the on-the ground excitement and ‘feel’ of the 2009 electoral campaign, I took the time to run a short analysis of the online presence of the three main contenders in the race for Romania’s Presidency. Hopefully this will help enlighten some of our readers on the tone and content of the race.
First, a caveat: unlike in the US, where presidential campaigns seem to start ever earlier and cost exponentially more from season to season, in Romania, the campaign per se officially opens one month ahead of the first round of voting.…
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While Europe was busy marking the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall with elaborate ceremonies and a symbolic procession of European and American political figures through the Brandenburg Gate, the mood in Romania was darkening. Twenty years after the bloodbath that marked the fall of communism, Romanians have been so hard hit by the recession and so disappointed by their politicians that few other than inconsolable parents stopped to remember the events and listen to the speeches.
(Historically, Romanians also have few reasons to join in the Berlin wall celebrations – the Romanian Rev…
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In a three-day trip to Eastern Europe, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a pit stop in Bucharest, to the relative relief of attention-starved Romanians who feel, like all Central and East European countries, somewhat abandoned by the new US administration. (A perception enhanced, of course, by the Obama White House decision to cancel former President Bush’s missile defense system in Eastern Europe).
The New York Times notes that Biden’s visit comes at a tumultuous time for Romanian leaders, with a no-confidence vote only two weeks having toppled Prime Minister Boc’s government: “W…
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The Romanian ruling coalition collapsed yesterday as a parliament no-confidence vote confirmed fears that the government was struggling. The no-confidence doesn’t come as a surprise – last week, the Social Dems walked out on the governing coalition, on a background of mutual accusations of reform-stalling and power-grabbing.
According to the Romanian Constitution, the president must name a prime minister who then has 10 days to form a government and seek a confidence vote. Incumbent President Traian Basescu now has 10 days to “stitch together” a lame-duck cabinet ahead of the first ro…
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