Bulgaria's Ruling Party Hems, Haws over Media Monopoly Question

Rosen Plevneliev, the ruling Bulgarian centrist-right GERB's presidential runner, who emerged as a leader in the first round, failed to answer adequately a question over the alleged monopoly on the local media market.

"Bulgaria has signed all documents it has to. Its media is free and besides presidents are meant to cope with general issues, not concrete cases," an irritated Plevneliev said at a press conference after exit polls emerged in response to a journalistic question.

The journalist referred to the purchase of a large number of titles by media mogul Irena Krasteva and her son Delyan Peevski, who have been criticized not only for concentrating the media market in their hands, but also for fawning to the ruling GERB party and providing no information about the origin of their assets.

The beginning of August saw the latest development on the market and the expansion of the monopoly after one third of the shares of top Bulgarian daily Standart were, allegedly, bought by New Bulgarian Media Group, something the management of the daily firmly denies.

New Bulgarian Media Group owns the national BBT TV channel, the Telegraf daily, Weekend weekly, Monitor daily, Politika weekly, the newly-created Vseki Den daily, as well as the local Veliko Tarnovo daily Borba and the Plovdiv daily Maritsa. (Telegraf and Weekend are the highest-circulation daily and weekly in Bulgaria.)

The monopoly is also said to hold 80% of the newspapers distribution network

The deals are said to show that shady figures can afford to buy back shares in large numbers or artificially prop up loss-making titles not because this is economically profitable.

They are tempted by the prospect of using the media for money laundering or for promoting other economic activities from public tenders, public works, mobile telephony, energy, tourism, etc.

The investments are made with the sole goal of turning the media into a tool for communication or pressure, opponents say.

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