Bulgarian MPs Pass New Print Media Rules

Experts in political science and mass communications have been warning that Bulgarian media trends are extremely alarming. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Parliament passed Thursday the final Print Media Periodicals Bill aiming at transparency and clear rules in media ownership.

The amendments postulate that all print media must publish in their first issue for a particular calendar year information about their actual owner; in case when the publisher is a public company – the institution controlling the company must be noted.

Each publisher is mandated to submit with the Culture Ministry a declaration about the real owner of the media while the Ministry will publish the information on their official internet site.

The responsibility of complying with the new rules belongs to both publisher and distributor while the adherence to them would be monitored by local mayors.

Violators would be find between BGN 1 000 and 2 000, while repeat ones would face fines of BGN 3 000 to 5 000 and the funds will go to the municipal budgets.

The amendments aim to protect the citizens rights and were proposed for the first time in May by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

The proposal came in response to demands by the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria, who 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.

Experts in political science and mass communications have been warning that Bulgarian media trends are extremely alarming.

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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