Bulgarian Journalists Give Failing Grade to Freedom of Speech

The majority of Bulgarian journalist, across all kinds of media and the country, believe freedom of speech is strongly restricted. File photo

The freedom of speech in Bulgaria has received a failing grade on a one to five scale in a poll of the Association of European Journalists Bulgaria, AEJ.

48 out of 113 journalists, taking part in the poll, have assessed the freedom of speech in the country as poor – or 2. On the scale, 5 was excellent, 4 – good, 3 – satisfactory, 2 – poor, and 1 – very poor.

The average of all responses is 2.42. Only 4 believe that the freedom of speech is excellent; 5 – that it is good; 41 – satisfactory, and 15 – very poor.

The poll was conducted online in August-September among journalists working in print media, radio, TV, internet sites and bloggers across the country and had been distributed through direct emails - 95 of those who have responded work in Sofia, 65 are in print media, and 94 – in privately-owned media.

Precisely journalists from Sofia assess the freedom of speech as poor, while those in the country – as satisfactory.

The main problem in journalistic work in Bulgaria is political pressure, according to the participants – 58 of all; 28 have listed economic pressure; another 28 say they have never been pressured; 22 declined to answer.

According to 57, the media where they work is subject to political pressure; 45 – to economic one, while only 12 say there is no pressure at all at their work place. 82 have been direct witnesses of violations of freedom of speech. 30 listed a positive answer to the question if critics against advertisers in the media are allowed without restrictions; 34 – that such critics are rather banned, and 23 – that they are never allowed.

The poll had been anonymous with the option for the respondents to list their name – only 12, 9 of whom women, have done so. 22 have written free comments, mainly on economic pressure from advertisers and political one through politicians' phone calls. Two told about being fired over a material hurting somebody's political or business interests, one of them – a renowned journalist with high achievements and international awards.