ry, and the quality of production decreased
appreciably. The 1971 ideological campaign forced film making into a
further regression. Western observers characterized post-1968 films as
being totally lacking in originality.

Because of the relatively low number of Romanian films produced, the
industry has generally depended on the importation of sizable numbers of
foreign films to meet its needs. The government no longer publishes
official statistics dealing with film imports, but in 1960 the regime
reported that 188 feature films and 150 documentaries from foreign
countries were shown. Approximately 40 percent of these films came from
the Soviet Union; the remainder came from France, East Germany, England,
Italy, Czechoslovakia, and the United States.

Distribution

Despite the emphasis placed by the government on motion pictures as both
a propaganda and an entertainment medium, the number of theaters and
attendance at film showings has decreased steadily since 1965. This
trend was due principally to the competition offered by the expanding
television industry, but the falling off in the quality of films was
also a contributing factor.

Film theaters are of two types, those which show pictures regularly in
designated movie houses or, periodically, in multipurpose recreation
centers, and mobile film units, which exhibit documentary and
educational films in schools or other local facilities in outlying
areas. Motion picture houses of both types decreased in number from
6,499 in 1965 to 6,275 in 1970, and in the same period annual attendance
dropped more than 6 million from the 1965 high of almost 205 million.

INFORMAL INFORMATION MEDIA

Lectures, public and organizational meetings, exhibits, and
demonstrations also serve as means of communication between the
government and the population at large. Although less significant than
the formal mass media, these events are fostered by officials of the
regime as highly effective elements in the indoctrination process
because they offer direct personal confrontations at the lower levels.
Word-of-mouth communication is also an important and effective medium,
particularly as a means of spreading news heard from Western radio
transmissions, which were no longer subject to government jamming as a
matter of policy.

SECTION III. NATIONAL SECURITY

CHAPTER 12

PUBLIC ORDER AND INTERNAL SECURITY

By 1972 the internal security situation in Romania had changed a g