Oana Lungescu
Oana Lungescu (born 29 June 1958) is a Romanian journalist with philological education (English and Spanish). Between 2010 and September 2023 she has been the principal NATO spokesperson.[1] In 2024 she joined the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK defence and security think tank.[2]
Biography
[edit]Born in Bucharest, she graduated in 1981 from the Faculty of Philology of the University of Bucharest, the English-Spanish section. Between 1981 and 1983 she worked as an English teacher in the town of Bușteni.[3] In 1983 she refused to cooperate with the Communist secret police, the Securitate.[4] The Securitate prepared an informational tracking file of Lungescu giving her the code name Lorena.[5]
Her mother, originally from Cluj, had settled in 1981 as a physician in West Germany. Oana Lungescu requested in 1983 the granting of a passport for visiting her mother, only to be refused by the authorities. The Securitate tried to force her collaboration through blackmail with a passport and medication for her father, a lawyer, who was seriously ill. After her father died in 1985, she was allowed to live in West Germany, where she obtained German citizenship.[6]
Between 1985 (before the 1989 fall of Communism in Eastern Europe) and 1992, she worked as a reporter for the Romanian section of the BBC, by 1996 becoming editor and auxiliary[clarification needed] of BBC's Romanian section, under the editorial name of "Ana Maria Bota".[7] In 1997, she moved to the BBC World Service, where she worked as a correspondent in Brussels and Berlin until 2010, when NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen named her as the new spokesperson, succeeding James Appathurai.[8] She was the first woman, first journalist, first person born in the former Soviet block, and became the longest-serving person in this position.[1][2] As of 2024, Lungescu is distinguished fellow at a UK defence and security think tank, RUSI - the Royal United Services Institute.[2]
External links
[edit]- @NATOpress Twitter account of the NATO Spokesperson, formerly Lungescu's, as of Jan. 2024 belonging to Dylan White.
- BBC Romanian Service, 1939-2008 (in Romanian), interview from 30 August 2011
- Oana Lungescu, În România, de Paști 'In Romania during Easter' (in Romanian), 29 April 2006 (active, 20 January 2024).
- Oana Lungescu, Euro election gets celebrity veneer. BBC News, 3 June 2009 (active, 20 January 2024).
- "Cel mai tânăr informator al Securității avea 10 ani", 'The youngest Securitate informer was just 10 years old' (in Romanian)[dead link]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Oana Lungescu at NATO HQ website. Retrieved 20 Jan 2024.
- ^ a b c BBC Weekend, BBC World Service, 20 Jan 2024.
- ^ "Oana Lungescu". nato.int. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
- ^ Românca Oana Lungescu, de la BBC la NATO (in Romanian)
- ^ Oana Lungescu, noul purtător de cuvânt al NATO, era numită de Securitate "Lorena" (in Romanian)
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Natosprecherin mit vielen Nationalitäten (in German), 12 October 2010, p. 4.
- ^ Lista angajaţilor BBC România (in Romanian)
- ^ Romanian-born journalist Oana Lungescu, the new NATO spokesperson (in Romanian)
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- 1958 births
- Living people
- Journalists from Bucharest
- NATO officials
- Romanian journalists
- Romanian women journalists
- BBC newsreaders and journalists
- University of Bucharest alumni
- Teachers of English as a second or foreign language
- British women television journalists
- British radio presenters
- British women radio presenters
- Romanian radio presenters
- Romanian women radio presenters
- Romanian writer stubs
- European journalist stubs