Defending or Undermining Democracy? Media Framings of Romania’s 2024 Election Annulment

The annulment of Romania’s 2024 presidential election constituted an unprecedented moment in the country’s post-1989 democratic development and generated intense media debate. This paper examines how Romanian media reported the annulment, focusing on the dominant media frames used to explain and evaluate the decision. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of major print newspapers and online news platforms, the study sets out to explore the presence of four main frames: the annulment as a defence of democratic integrity, as a crisis of democratic legitimacy, as evidence of institutional failure and opacity, and as a politicised or externally influenced intervention. The first three frames are drawn from the debate on militant democracy and the normative justifications for, or counter-arguments against, “the idea that, to protect themselves, democracies might under some circumstances have to restrict the rights of those set on undermining or outright destroying democracy” (Müller 2016,249). The fourth frame is based on widespread reports of misinformation and conspiratorial narratives in the aftermath of the 2024 election annulment. Taken together, these frames depict a highly polarised media landscape in which pro-government and opposition-aligned outlets advanced competing interpretations, while online media amplified emotional and conspiratorial framings that challenged institutional trust. The paper explores the extent to which these divergent framings played a significant role in shaping public perceptions of the annulment, contributing both to the justification of extraordinary democratic safeguards and to the erosion of confidence in electoral and judicial institutions. By situating the Romanian case within the broader literature on militant democracy and media framing, the study highlights the central role of media narratives in mediating the legitimacy of exceptional democratic measures in fragile democratic contexts.