"Normally, when one says there is no freedom of speech, everybody thinks that the Prime Minister or President (as it it happening now in Turkey, in Poland and Hungary) impose restrictions on the media, change the Constitutional Court or [chief] prosecutor. People link all of this to the government. [In Bulgaria] it is quite the opposite. The Bulgarian National Radio and the Bulgarian National Television are carrying out such anti-government policies and yet nobody has told them even a word about this."

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov offering setting public broadcasters in the country, the BNT and BNR, as an example for free speech in a recent interview. Then, when asked to clarify, he adds:

"OK, it is not an anti-government policy, the precise wording is that they criticize the government all the time. We have neither changed the bosses nor sent there a party guy [as a manager] as it has happened in previous years. So the media have full freedom."The media have full freedom. It is their owners where the problems come from. Each media outlet carries out their own policies to protect their owners."