Parliament endorses Claudia Nicolae for AGERPRES director general

In a joint meeting on Tuesday, Parliament's culture committees endorsed Claudia Nicolae for director general of the AGERPRES National News Agency. 

The decision was made by a majority vote. There were three abstentions. 

Claudia Nicolae is nominated by the Government for this position. 

With a media experience of more than 14 years, she began her career as print media editor in 2004; she was also an accredited reporter to the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, the Government House and Parliament House. She has worked for television companies and news agencies. 

At AGERPRES she started as an editor and advanced to editor-in-chief of the video department, and deputy director general. 

"I have designed, together with my colleagues, editorial projects that we are proud of. AGERPRES has managed, beyond the somewhat stressful barriers for the agency journalists, to prove that there is professionalism and, beyond all, there is a will," said Nicolae. 

She added that her vision of AGERPRES is based on digitisation. 

"I say this because, from my point of view, the performance of an institution is not given by luck or the passage of time, but it lies in some studies that aim at mass-media modernisation in Europe and elsewhere in the world. We must get in line even if we are a public body under parliamentary control; we do have to do our legal duty that of public information. I believe that this evolution, this path for the news agency on which we embarked in 2016, should be continued," said Nicolae. 

She unveiled to the committees the objectives aimed at finalising the projects already started on the Greater Union Centennial, but also making a news stream regarding the preparations for the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council. 

"From an editorial point of view, 2019 is a difficult year, as were all electoral years for any news organisation. The main points we are considering are the Council Presidency, followed by the elections to the European Parliament and then the presidential elections," said Nicolae, referring to the fact that she also intends to optimise the AGERPRES website and to start live streaming within the video department. 

Nicolae served as AGERPRES deputy director general until July, when she was appointed adviser to Interior Minister Carmen Dan.