Bulgaria Journalism Ethics Watchdog Urges Ethnic Turks Leader to Prove Claims

Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party DPS, must prove his brown-envelope journalism claims with respect to the journalist from the Trud Daily, Valeria Veleva.

This is the formal position of Bulgaria’s National Council for Journalistic Ethics with respect to the open letter distributed by Dogan at the end of last week in which he slams Veleva claiming she had offered his party to serve as its “secret PR agent”.

Dogan’s letter came after the Trud Daily and Veleva in particular published reports that he received BGN 1,5 M as a consultant of the Tsankov Kamak hydro power plant project during the term of the three-way coalition government (2005-2009) of which his party was a member.

The Journalistic Ethics Council states that Dogan’s open letter contains claims about corruption among the Bulgarian media as a whole which is why it insists on receiving evidence.

The Council makes a commitment to react immediately, should any evidence be provided.

It also insists that the head of the DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) explain what he means at the end of his letter where he says that God should be coming to Veleva’s aid.

The Council declares further that even though the question about the relations between journalists and politicians is important, it should not push aside the question of violations made with respect to the Tsankov Kamak hydro power plant project.

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