 Also, several cases of blackmail involving media can be cited.Some owners had connections with Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania.For many years after the 1990 public funds were granted "in the form of rescheduling and cancelling tax liabilities for several groups of companies" in a way that "created advantages for the existing players in the market and raised obstacles for potential newcomers and for those who did not benefited from masked subsidies".