Reporters without Borders representative Olivier Basille has said that the threats against journalists and the absolute lack of media ownership transparency are among the reasons why Bulgaria ranks so low in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index of the NGO.

In a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Basille emphasized that Bulgaria had dropped 20 positions in only 2 years to place 100 in 2014.

He suggested that the reasons for Bulgaria’s poor performance in the sphere had remained unchanged from last year but had grown more concentrated.

Basille admitted that Bulgaria was in the bottom half of the ranking and was last among the EU countries.

“The first reason is the climate of violence, which involves direct or indirect threats against journalists and their families. Amid such climate, self-censorship affects work. The absolute lack of transparency about the real owners of media outlets is a huge problem,” he stated, adding that the impact of the grey economy was increasing, with investments being injected into the media to make them pressure instruments.

He also drew attention to the problem with advertisement and the financial independence of the media.

Basille said that he knew very good journalists in Bulgaria who had remained unemployed for years because their work against certain shady business groups made them unemployable.