Dan Diaconescu and producer Doru Parv were arrested after a seven-hour overnight court hearing. They are charged with demanding money from Ion Motz, the mayor of Zarand village, to avoid broadcasting compromising material about him. Motz claims he paid the two defendants about $37,000 after Diaconescu’s OTV TV channel broadcast a promo in 2009 promising scurrilous details about Motz’s personal life. Diaconescu denies blackmail. Romanian journalists have been regularly accused of extorting money from officials and public figures in exchange for a news blackout.