Journalists from the Bulgarian National Radio broadcast Horizont offered their support to their BBC colleagues. Many of the BBC employees staged protests after some key figures from the corporation resigned after the Hutton verdict.

BBC has always been a standard for impartial public media and we are deeply concerned by the attempts of the British government to cast a slur on the authority of the corporation, the statement of the Bulgarian journalists reads.

It also predicts that the latest developments could threaten the freedom of speech in Europe.

Last week after Lord Hutton's damning verdict BBC director general Greg Dyke as well as chairman Gavyn Davies resigned and hundreds of BBC employees staged protests.

Lord Hutton cleared the government of embellishing its Iraq weapons dossier, in his long awaited report on the death of Dr David Kelly. Kelly committed suicide after being named as BBC informer for the controversial dossier story. The claim that the government adorned its dossier on Iraq's weapons was unfounded, Lord Hutton said.