Bulgaria PM Vows Clear Rules on Media Market

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov opened Monday the 6th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Association of Bulgarian Media Abroad. This year's edition takes place in Vienna. Photo by Sofia Municipali

In a bid to defy allegations of being the darling of the local media, Bulgaria's prime minister has promised transparency and clear rules in media ownership.

“A working group is already drawing up a law for the printed media. What it will certainly provide for is transparency in media ownership – both printed and electronic,” Boyko Borisov said as he opened the 6th World Meeting of the Bulgarian Media, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Association of Bulgarian Media Abroad.

The proposal comes in response to demands by the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria, who recently sounded an alarm over the lack of clarity in the ownership and financing of part of the media in the country, which in their words undermine the market.

The publishers proposed that registration of printed media owners become obligatory, an idea that the prime minister enthusiastically embraced.

“Our aim is to let the audience know who conducts what policy. I can tell whose corporate interests we have hurt only by listening and reading the news at the end of the day,” the prime minister pointed out in Vienna.

Borisov complained that during the general elections in the summer, which his party won by a large margin, he has come under outrageous attacks by some of the media.

“Everybody expected me to come back in revenge after I won the elections, but it is exactly the opposite that happened – we created a comfortable working environment for all the media,” Borisov said, adding that the Bulgarian media are totally independent from the state and the municipalities.

The statement is in stark contrast with the opinions of experts in political science and mass communications, who have been warning that Bulgarian media trends are extremely alarming.

The pressure on Bulgarian media continues, both political and economic, leading to journalism's self-censorship, experts say. Their findings have been confirmed by the Assembly of the Council of Europe and the study of “Freedom House,” which ranks Bulgarian media 76th from a total of 196 countries by media freedom.

The latest developments on the media market have led to a near monopoly by a new media group spearheaded by Irena Krasteva, former head of the Bulgarian State Lottary.

“New Bulgarian Media Group" owns BBT TV channel, Weekend Weekly, Monitor Daily, the Telegraf Daily, the Politika Weekly, and the local Veliko Turnovo daily "Borba", the local Plovdiv daily “Maritsa”.

Most of these newspapers were bought by Krasteva in the summer of 2007, the total purchases amounting to over BGN 10 M.

At the end of 2008, the company also acquired TV7 EAD, and the newspaper Express.

Recent reports have suggested that the media tycoon is eyeing the two dailies with the highest circulation in the country – Trud and 24 Hours.

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