EU May Intervene to Fix Bulgaria's Broken Press Freedom

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | June 20, 2012, Wednesday // 12:52

The European Commission may seek an intervention in a bid to fix Bulgaria's severe press freedom issues, according to a German newspaper.

Even though Freedom House's last report suggests that media freedom is violated in both Hungary and Romania, it was Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's pressure upon media outlets that triggered outrage across Europe, while the Balkan country's issues are not widely discussed.

Bulgaria's high officials do not mind their first names appearing in titles, such as "Boyko Saved an Endangered Parrot Species" and "Boyko Gave a Run for Boris Becker's Money," Die Welt says in an article entitled "Fragile Democracy."

This kind of familiarity pays off when elections take place, according to Die Welt.

The paper reminds that the Balkan country is now 80th in Reporters Without Borders' press freedom index, lagging behind all other EU countries.

The European Commission is very much engaged in solving the Eurozone's debt crisis and does not have enough time to deal with other issues. However, the Commission does not tolerate media repressions and is likely to intervene, as it did with Hungary, Die Welt believes, according to Bulgaria's Mediapool.

Experts in political science and mass communications have been warning that Bulgarian media trends are extremely alarming as the lack of clarity in the ownership and financing of part of the media in the country undermine the market.

The pressure on Bulgarian media continues, both political and economic, leading to journalism's self-censorship, experts say.

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Tags: press freedom, media, Reporters without Borders, freedom, European Commission

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