Chairperson of Bulgaria’s Electronic Media Watchdog Resigns

Georgi Lozanov, the chairperson of Bulgaria’s media watchdog, the Council for Electronic Media (SEM), resigned on Thursday.

Lozanov resigned as both member of the council and its chairperson in order to avoid participation in the voting on the registration of the controversial PIK television.

His resignation will be subject to voting at the next meeting of the council on March 1.

Three of the members of SEM voted in favour of the registration of PIK as the granting of licence could not be refused on legal grounds.

The fifth member of the council is on a trip abroad and was absent from the meeting.

In the motivation for his resignation, Lozanov explained that he had carefully reviewed the application documents of PIK and agreed that there are no legal grounds to deny the registration of the television.

However he did not want to legalise the aggressive and hostile rhetoric employed by the online media of the same name, which reports link to controversial MP and media mogul Delyan Peevski.

His resignation comes a month before the expiration of his term as chairperson and member of the council.

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