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Mircea Dinescu (; born November 11, 1950) is a poet, journalist, and editor.
After returning to Bucharest, he invited some friends (including Gabriel Liiceanu, Alexandru Paleologu, and Andrei Pleșu) to write a protest against Ceaușescu's policies that were destroying Romanian culture and villages, but they failed to reach a consensus on the text and Dinescu decided to write his own protest.Deletant, p. 280 The members of the group were then visited by the Securitate, which argued that their actions were done under KGB orders as an attack against Romania, not against Ceaușescu.
His book, Moartea citește ziarul ("Death is reading the newspaper") was turned down in 1988 by the Communist regime's censorship apparatus, and was then published in Amsterdam.
On March 17, 1989, he was fired from România Literară literary magazine,Deletant, p. 279 as a result of an anti-Totalitarianism interview against President Nicolae Ceaușescu, which Dinescu had granted to the French newspaper Libération in December 1988.Deletant, p. 281 According to him, the reason for dismissal was "receiving visits from diplomats and journalists from Socialist and capitalist countries without permission". He was expelled from the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), held under house arrest, with his house guarded around the clock, all visits banned; he was allowed to go outside just for shopping, but always flanked by two Securitate officers.Deletant, p. 283
Dinescu got support from seven writers (Geo Bogza, Ștefan Augustin Doinaș, Dan Hăulică, Octavian Paler, Andrei Pleșu, Alexandru Paleologu, and Mihai Șora), who wrote a letter to Dumitru Radu Popescu, the President of the Writers' Union, asking him "to undo an injustice". Despite the original authors' secrecy (they didn't publish it abroad), six of them (all, except for Geo Bogza, a veteran socialist) were forbidden to publish. He got additional support from poet Doina Cornea, literary critics Alexandru Călinescu and Radu Enescu,Deletant, p. 286-8 and, in November 1989, a collective of 18 young academics and writers, who also wrote letters to Popescu.Deletant, p. 289
Despite being isolated, Dinescu noticed that with a handful of exceptions, the writers did not protest against the oppression of the regime. On November 11, he wrote a statement in which he attacked the Romanian intelligentsia for their sycophancy for Ceaușescu, the Romanian Orthodox Church for being "trade unionists in religious vestments", journalists for being 'apostles of the personality cult", and writers for being "trusted of the party".Deletant, p. 289-290
He invested a part of the money he earned from the books published into agriculture. His estate makes a wine sold under the name Vinul Moșierului ("Landlord's wine") – the name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to an ironic comment President Ion Iliescu had made about Dinescu's social status.
Dinescu remains a strong and charismatic voice of the civil society. As member of ( National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives), he is particularly concerned with exposing the former officers and collaborators of the Securitate. He is also a strong critic of Communism and of Romanian leaders that had connections with the Communist regime.
Although not politically involved, he openly supported Traian Băsescu's candidature for President of Romania during the 2004 elections.
In May 2005, in collaboration with the journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu, he started a new newspaper called Gândul, with an initial circulation of 100,000 copies, but he sold his shares in July 2006. He and Stelian Tănase host a talk show on Realitatea TV, Tănase și Dinescu.
Dinescu was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Star of Romania. In 1991, he became an Honorary Member of the University of Augsburg.
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