Bulgaria has been moved ten notches down in the world chart for freedom of the media drawn up by Reporters Without Borders – from 70th down to 80th position in 2011-2012, or the rearmost place among EU countries. Bulgaria has shown similar indices with Serbia, Chile and Paraguay. The Reporters Without Borders NGO comments that Bulgaria has failed to deal with freedom of speech violations, mostly due to the lack of political will.

Now, more about the findings of an anonymous online poll held by the Association of European Journalists in Bulgaria. According to more than half of polled journalists and media experts the worst problem of the Bulgarian media is systematic political pressure exerted on journalists. One in third journalists has identified another problem that has been gaining momentum over the recent years – the economic dependence of publications that mars the daily work of reporters and editors. “The economic crisis has strengthened this perception”, comments Kamelia Ivanova, Secretary General of the Association of European Journalists in Bulgaria, and adds:

“The crisis and economic constraints have increased the number of highly professional freelancers who have left media outlets. So, exactly freelancers have stood out with greater freedom and objectivity in their work. This indirectly points to the massive dependence of media outlets on big advertisers. A report compiled by the Media Democracy Foundation carried in October 2011, reads that the gray businesses taking over the management of media outlets, has generated the worst problems concerning freedom of the press in Bulgaria.

Similarly, media experts in Bulgaria have explained growing economic dependence of the Bulgarian press with the insufficient transparency of media outlet ownership. There are taboo subjects in many editorial offices resulting in permanent abuse of the freedom of the speech. Associate Prof. Georgi Lozanov from the Council of Electronic Media advises journalists on how to lessen such dependence.

“There are corporate bodies and other corporates behind them, and it could be that there are a dozen Mafia guys that are behind those corporates pulling the strings of the whole country. For this to change, the media should be very much involved in opposing this trend. The territory of media should increasingly become the territory of investigative journalism.”

Good investigative journalism is still a rarity in the Bulgarian press. In the view of German journalist Frank Stier, one of the chief reasons for this situation is self-censorship. Stier has been working in Sofia since 2006, as a correspondent of Austrian and German newspapers, and is in the know of the media scene in Bulgaria.

“Anywhere in the world, the publishers and owners of media outlets pursue their own economic interests that are being conducted in their publications. Compared to West Europe however, these dependencies are too obvious in Bulgaria and have driven journalists to total despair. So, they choose self-censorship as the lesser evil.”

The remarks made by German journalist Frank Stier are confirmed by Georgi Lozanov.

“We should make clear that freedom of speech in Bulgaria does not live up to the democratic standards of the European Union. There is a deficit in this sphere, and it has to do with the conformism of the press. And the worst of all, investigative journalism is not influential”, concludes Georgi Lozanov.

Source: BNR