Only 1% of Bulgarians find the media in Bulgaria to be completely independent, and 63% of our compatriots consider the media to be dependent in some way, it became clear during a forum "Media and Politics in Bulgaria", organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The data is part of a study by Alpha Research, which makes such a national representative survey for the second consecutive year, reports bloombergtv.bg

"The survey results are similar to the previous one," Nelly Dineva from Alpha Research said. She noted that there are some dynamics in the results of this study compared to 2017, but overall the data overlapped and media mistrust could be considered as a tendency.

According to the results, the people who express distrust of the media are those with higher education and citizens of the bigger cities in Bulgaria.

Dineva pointed out the interesting distinction that the respondents did. She noted that while their media mistrust is serious, 55% of them think they can have an average level of trust in journalists and distinguish their professionalism from the environment in which they work.

Information on political issues has a good level of performance, according to 47% of the respondents, Dineva said. It is worrying, however, that 13% of respondents have indicated they are not interested in political issues, and the proportion of young people among them is not small.

The study also explores the Bulgarians' confidence in the different institutions and countries that have an important attitude to our foreign policy. The organizations under consideration are the European Union (EU) and NATO, and the countries are Germany, the United States and Russia, Dineva said.

"According to the survey, Bulgarians have confidence in the EU, Germany, and somewhat Russia, but a larger proportion of them point to distrust of the US over last year's survey, and their confidence in NATO is also not significant."

In the framework of an open discussion, the options were discussed to address the problems of declining confidence in the media.

According to Prof. Orlin Spasov, Executive Director of the Media Democracy Foundation, the political will is essential for the change of the media reality.

"The data presented by the current study confirmed the trends of recent years. In our country there is no political will to change the media reality and enough strong mechanisms to regulate the environment. This leads to its deformation, which results in a distortion of the media economy, increased political influence on the media, and an increase in false information in the media. "

Irina Nedeva, chairman of the Bulgarian section of the Association of European Journalists, agrees with the opinion of Prof. Spasov, but adds that the solution to the problem is complex.

"Public institutions and the government should not be able to hinder the professional development of the media," she says.

According to her, politicians should have a clear idea of ​​where their media intervention is actually possible.

The event was part of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation media program aimed at the media in Southeast Europe. Its main goal is to accompany the so-called "transitional period" in which the media in the region is located, noted the director of the foundation.

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