References: Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, Art. 40, [ LINK ]

References: Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, Art. 39, [ LINK ]

References: Capital Weekly, overview of the media market and ownership in Bulgaria, August 2007, www.capital.bg

Peer Review Comments: Concentration of the advertising market concerns not only the print media but also the electronic media. It is considered by the media experts in the country as one of the most serious problems affecting the variety of opinions covered by the mainstream media.

References: Appeal mechanism is not necessary, since there is no licensing procedure.

References: No licensing required

References: No such fees

There have been regular accusations of the lack of impartiality on the part of the regulatory body. Certain political biases have also been alleged. During the reviewed period there have been no major scandals involving CEM.

References: [ LINK ]

[ LINK ]

Interview with Georgi Lozanov, published in Denvnik, July 19, [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: Over the last seven years, there have been problems with the licensing of some electronic media by CEM. In practice, during the whole period, the process of licensing has been blocked. In 2007, CEM attempted to start a competition for conventional broadcast television licenses. Soon after the announcement, the competition was canceled since digital broadcasting is to be introduced in the country in 2008, when a new competition will have to be announced. This move was interpreted by some media experts as an attempt to protect the interests of certain media and advertising conglomerates.

References: Radio and Television Act, 127(3, www.bnt.bg/content/download/908/5869/file/ZRT.pdf

Peer Review Comments: There is a general procedure for appeals granted by procedure laws.

References: Licensing for the public electronic media is required and it might take more than two months.

Peer Review Comments: Over the last seven years, there have been problems with the licensing of some electronic media by CEM. In practice, during the whole period, the process of licensing has been blocked. In 2007, CEM attempted to start a competition for conventional broadcast television licenses. Soon after the announcement, the competition was canceled since digital broadcasting is to be introduced in the country in 2008, when a new competition will have to be announced. This move was interpreted by some media experts as an attempt to protect the interests of certain media and advertising conglomerates.

References: Fees are not excessive by any standard

Peer Review Comments: The fees are regulated by the Law on Radio and Television and by the tariff regulating the fees on radio and TV ([ LINK ]).

Peer Review Comments: Media licenses can be obtained at a reasonable cost. The major problem is that no broadcast licenses have been issued in the last seven years.

References: There is no controlling of Internet publications, apart from cases of child pornography. In certain cases the content of Islamic groups' Internet sites has been sited as evidence of their dangerous character.

References: There are no reports of any type of government censure of Internet content. Sometimes the content of the Internet sites of marginal Islamic organizations may be cited as a reason for closer monitoring by authorities.

References: Constitutional Court Decision 7/1996; Art. 10, ECHR

References: Studies and projects of Center for Liberal Strategies, Sofia

Peer Review Comments: There is still a problem in Bulgaria with the unclear media ownership which leads to certain practices of self-censorship. Some business groups or media owners have certain political or business affiliations that might have negative influences over the freedom of the media outlets they own. For example, in October 2006, a well-known journalist, Ivo Indjev, was fired by the private bTV (one of the two Bulgarian private TV channels with national coverage) under alleged pressure from the presidency after he asked a question about information sent to him anonymously by e-mail, accusing the president of acquiring an expensive flat with assistance from a businessman politically affiliated with his party.

References: Studies of Transparency International and the Center for Study of Democracy

References: No such regulation, although most publications reveal their owners.

References: Radio and Television Act, [ LINK ]

Interview with Ognian Zlatev, Director, Media Development Center

Peer Review Comments: There are some legal requirements for disclosing the ownership of broadcast media, but the actual ownership of some media outlets in Bulgaria is still not clear. In practice, the disclosure process for broadcast media is easy to manipulate, and it is difficult for citizens to obtain reliable information.

References: Annual reports of the Bulgarian Media Coalition

Interview with Irina Nedeva, December 2007

Peer Review Comments: Some breaches of professional ethics occur, but most are related to the lack of professionalism of the journalists and their desire to "produce" news.

References: Nations in Transit 2007

Peer Review Comments: Small parties and most independent candidates normally are not given media attention. The media normally cover only three to four major parties. One of the big scandals during the local elections in October 2007 was the order of the political parties' press conferences immediately after the end of the vote. The government parties delayed until late in the night, after the press conference the new party GERB, which won the elections in Sofia and some major cities. This press conference was to be broadcast on National Television.

References: Apart from the mentioned exception, in the previous answer (regarding the ability of the GERB party to schedule their post-election press conference) there have been no serious problems regarding access to the media by politicians.

Peer Review Comments: Normally, most of the smaller parties and independent candidates are not covered by state-owned media.

References: No such reports.

References: There are no reports.

Peer Review Comments: There were some rare cases of attacks on journalists, and the police did not discover and did not report the reasons for the attacks.

References: No reports of journalist killings.