'Romanian documentary filmmaker critically beaten covering illegal logging', 17 September 2021

While filming a new documentary on illegal deforestation in Romania, filmmaker and journalist Mihai Dragolea, environmental activist Tiberiu Bosutar, and a third companion, Radu Mocanu, were brutally beaten by a group of twenty men.

The attack took place in a forest in Cosna, Suceava County, and was carried out with axes and forks. As well as being critically beaten, Dragolea’s equipment was destroyed, as well as field notes and records. «Among the attackers were the forestry engineer and the owner of the forest. I couldn’t have any dialogue with them. They only shouted: I will kill you !, I will kill you», Mihai Dragolea told the Romanian newspaper Digi24...

Dragolea himself is a young filmmaker whose 2015 film Golden Robot was well-received across the local documentary sphere, while illegal deforestation continues to be a major problem in Romania. Fueled by Austrian companies (ie. Kronospan, Holzindustrie Schweighofer, who operate logging mills in the town of Sebeș), a multi-billion euro industry and a mafia-like system of enforcement and secrecy, Romania’s pristine virgin forests are being cut down to the tune of 260 million trees to logging since the Austrians arrived. Aside from corrupt politicians who have welcomed the foreign companies with open arms, a Romanian forestry company, Romsilva, has issued the logging licenses.