page_title: Eugen Filotti
section_title: Director of the Press
hierarchical_section_title: Eugen Filotti / Diplomatic activity / Director of the Press
caption_attribution_description: Eugen Filotti Director of the Press
context_page_description: Eugen Filotti was a Romanian diplomat, journalist and writer. As a diplomat he worked at the League of Nations in Geneva and then as minister plenipotentiary in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary. As minister plenipotentiary to Budapest he issued transit visas for Jews during the Holocaust. He was secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1944–1945. As writer he published several translations of literary works.
context_section_description: In 1930, Eugen Filotti is promoted Director of the Press and of Information in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the early 1930s Romania's foreign policy, under the leadership of Nicolae Titulescu, was pursuing a system of alliances, which would enable the smaller countries of the Balkan region to oppose any aggression. At that time, the National Socialist Party had not gained power in Germania, but, in Titulescu's political vision, such alliances had to be created in advance, so as to have time to consolidate. Titulescu hoped to create a union of all Balkanic countries. As, due to its territorial claims, Bulgaria did not adhere to such a proposal, there was still the possibility of developing an alliance of the other Balkan states: Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. Romania was the diplomatic force pressing for an alliance. In his capacity of Director of the Press and Information, Eugen Filotti was in charge of informing the mass media and to develop a favorable public opinion in all concerned countries. Finally, after several years of negotiations and various bilateral agreements, the Balkan Pact was signed on February 9, 1934 in the great aula of the Academy of Athens by Demetrios Maximos for Greece, Nicolae Titulescu for Romania, Tevfik Rüştü Aras for Turkey and Bogoljub Jevtić for Yugoslavia.
  În his capacity of director of the press, Eugen Filotti had the responsibility of verifying the activity of foreign press correspondents working in Romania. Besides many journalists, adhering to high professional standards, there were some less honest persons who tried to squeeze in. The case of Julius Köver exemplifies the problems raised by incorrect reporting. Köver claimed to be an economic correspondent of the Austrian daily Neue Freie Presse, presenting the required credentials. In 1933 he also registered at the Direction of the Press in Bucharest as correspondent of the American United Press International. Köver also contributed to the newspapers  "Pester Lloyd" şi "Budapesti Hírlap" published in Hungary and the German language newspapers Prager Tagblatt and Die Wirtschaft published in Czechoslovakia.  Julius Köver's activities started raising suspicions in February 1935, when United Press released the information that Prince Nicholas of Romania was expected to return to Romania, where the Iron Guard was preparing a revolt intending to depose King Carol II and to replace him with Nicholas. Another false news sent by Julius Köver to America claimed that Nicolae Titulescu, the minister of Foreign Affairs, had signed an agreement in Moscow, which granted the Soviet army the right of transit through Romania. Such information had not only the result of casting a negative image of the country but of also weakening Romania's position within the Balkan Pact. Called by Eugen Filotti to the Direction of the Press for explanations, Julius Köver claimed that the news releases of the United Press Agency had been generated in Vienna and that he had nothing to do with them. Actually Köver had designed an ingenious system to transmit his fallacies to various branch offices of the agency, from where they were retransmitted to the United States. He hoped that this stratagem would help him hide his identity from the Romanian authorities and, at the same time, would enable him claim that he used it to elude the censorship existing in Romania. Eugen Filotti was able to point these malversations and, at last, Julius Köver was expelled from Romania.
  Apart from his activities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after returning from his missions in Prague and in Geneva, Eugen Filotti renewed his contacts with the Romanian cultural elite. This time his activity was mainly related to the Romanian chapter of the International PEN locally called the "PEN Club". On April 8, 1933 a new committee of the Romanian PEN Club was elected, including Victor Eftimiu (chairman), Ion Sân-Giorgiu (general secretary), Eugen Filotti (treasurer), Ion Marin Sadoveanu, Lucian Blaga as well as a member of the Cluj subsidiary. At that time, the cultural life in R
caption: Eugen Filotti as Director of the Press – 1935
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