{"id":7173,"date":"2026-04-10T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/7173\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:00:22","slug":"war-reporter-rewatches-fierce-battle-for-tv-station-in-romania-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/7173\/","title":{"rendered":"War reporter rewatches fierce battle for TV station in Romania revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title = \"War reporter rewatches fierce battle for TV station in Romania revolution\"   width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cbj4Vqs_Wf0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nWar reporter rewatches fierce battle for TV station in Romania revolution<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe Romanian Revolution of 1989 that toppled Communist president Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu became Europe\u2019s bloodiest anti-communist uprising and a defining moment in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Former ITN correspondent Paul Davies was the only broadcaster to report from the heart of the conflict, capturing dramatic scenes inside and outside a besieged television station in Bucharest, which became a key battleground in the deadly street fighting during the revolution.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of Reporting History, the veteran war reporter joins host Tom Bradby to rewatch dramatic unaired frontline footage showing him and his cameraman hiding between gunmen trading shots during the battle for the main TV station.<\/p>\n<p>Davies tells the extraordinary story behind his broadcasts, from landing at Bucharest airport amid a gun battle to the incredible siege of the television station, and reveals what he calls the \u201cbiggest mistake of my career\u201d as he tried to get the remarkable footage to the outside world.<\/p>\n<p>More than 1,000 people were killed in the Romanian Revolution, which saw Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu and his wife Elena executed on Christmas Day 1989, bringing an end to decades of communist rule in Romania.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable reports from the defining events of the modern age and reveal the drama that occurred off camera, from war reporting and frontline journalism to historic global events.<\/p>\n<p>This episode explores:<\/p>\n<p>The Romanian Revolution 1989<br \/>\nThe fall of Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu<br \/>\nStreet fighting in Bucharest<br \/>\nThe battle for the TV station<br \/>\nFrontline war reporting in Eastern Europe<br \/>\nUnaired combat footage and reporting under fire<br \/>\nThe collapse of communism in Romania<\/p>\n<p>0:00 Intro<br \/>\n1:19 Ceau\u0219escu toppled<br \/>\n2:15 Flying into gun battle<br \/>\n3:41 TV station siege<br \/>\n6:15 Journalists under threat<br \/>\n7:54 \u2018My greatest mistake\u2019<br \/>\n10:50 Battle for Bucharest<br \/>\n13:30 Unseen war footage<br \/>\n16:30 Christmas Eve 1989<br \/>\n17:45 Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s daughter<br \/>\n19:10 Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s death<br \/>\n21:06 Death shots debate<br \/>\n23:13 Departing thoughts<br \/>\n23:57 Return to Bucharest<br \/>\n26:00 Paul\u2019s memories <\/p>\n<p>Subscribe for more Reporting History, war reporting, and historic news documentaries.#RomanianRevolution #Ceausescu #ColdWarHistory<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Subscribe to ITV News on YouTube: http:\/\/bit.ly\/2lOHmNj<br \/>\n\u2022 Get breaking news and more stories at http:\/\/www.itv.com\/news<\/p>\n<p>Follow ITV News on TikTok https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@itvnews?lang=en<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on Instagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/itvnews\/<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/itvnews\/<br \/>\nFollow ITV News on X: https:\/\/twitter.com\/itvnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"War reporter rewatches fierce battle for TV station in Romania revolution The Romanian Revolution of 1989 that toppled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10850,10857,10855,10863,10853,10852,10859,10854,10862,10851,10858,10864,380,379,10861,10849,1265,10860,10848,10856,10865,1259],"class_list":{"0":"post-7173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-itv-news","8":"tag-bucharest-revolution","9":"tag-bucharest-tv-station","10":"tag-ceausescu-execution","11":"tag-cold-war-documentary","12":"tag-cold-war-history","13":"tag-communist-romania","14":"tag-conflict-documentary","15":"tag-eastern-europe-revolution","16":"tag-european-revolution","17":"tag-fall-of-communism","18":"tag-frontline-footage","19":"tag-historic-footage","20":"tag-itv","21":"tag-itv-news","22":"tag-news-history","23":"tag-nicolae-ceausescu","24":"tag-reporting-history","25":"tag-revolution-documentary","26":"tag-romanian-revolution-1989","27":"tag-romanian-uprising","28":"tag-war-journalism","29":"tag-war-reporter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@videos\/116381067878067885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}