Journalist Cătălin Tolontan replied to president Traian Băsescu, via a text published on his personal blog:
"On the Wednesday show of August 20 broadcast by B1TV, you have referred to "journalists jerks and people without character ". You did not say my name but the target was pretty clear. Why should we bother to hide behind the impersonal "it is signed", "it is done face" and so on, when you have indicated quite explicitly that it was about media companies including "the Sports Gazette". Others understood exactly the same thing. Within minutes from your intervention, my colleague Mirela Neag called me shocked and said: "I cannot believe this, the president has threatened you!". In other times, as the newly elected president of Romania, you have granted me for the GSP one of your first interviews in the press. Then, in 2007, I supported the option NO in the dismissal referendum. In 2009, together with CTP, Adrian Ursu and other journalist, we trashed SOV on his own TV station, during the hit moments after the final debate, when the rating was higher than during the live broadcast! Do I regret this? No. When you are in the opposition again, you will discover once more other good things about us. And so on."
The journalist explained live on Antena 3, during the " Weekend Edition" show, that the president’s position says a lot about the Romanian state.
"I hope the President knows what made him angry. I would be disappointed if he did not know. If he caught a rumor and released an insinuation in his characteristic style, I'd be really sorry. Because this would still say something about the Romanian state. About the fact that the Romanian state is working at the highest level based on innuendos, gossip and insane interpretations. Perhaps the president knows why I bothered or disturbed him. I do not mind what happened. I saw this movie so many times that I have no humors in this regard. The journalists, you know very well, are good when writing about your opponents and are bad when they write about your friends. This merry go around, went around so many times."
Tolontan added that Elena Udrea will be summoned to DNA to provide explanations in the Gala Bute.
"Elena Udrea will certainly be summoned to give explanations about the Gala Bute. We simply cannot predict anything other than the essential information we have. It is clearly known that the prosecution began in rem. Prosecutors rely on more than a suspicion that things were not quite so ... and they said it very clearly in December last year. Elena Udrea nervousness and that of her allies is unjustified. These people ‘s problems have moved to DNA. Just as the Ridzi case. Everybody can say what they like about us. If the biggest lies told about us had been true, by contradiction, that does not change the facts committed at the gala Bute. Things are totally separate. We are not writing to the President of Romania or anyone else."