site.btaBulgaria Continues to Fall in World Press Freedom Index, Ranking Lowest in EU
NW 13:15:01 25-04-2018
MY1314NW.105
105 POLITICS-PRESS FREEDOM-REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS-BULGARIA
Bulgaria Continues
to Fall in World Press
Freedom Index, Ranking Lowest in EU
Paris, April 25 (BTA) - Bulgaria continues to fall in the World Press Freedom Index and is ranked 111th in the world - lower than any other European Union member, says the annual report by the international NGO Reporters without Borders. Bulgaria's ranking deteriorated from 2017, when it ranked 109th. The report further recalls that this country has fallen from 36th position in 2006.
Although the current holder of the European Council's rotating presidency (until the end of June 2018), Bulgaria is now lower in the Index than all the countries in the western Balkans, some of which are candidates for EU membership, the report reads.
Corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs is widespread. The most notorious embodiment of this aberrant state of affairs is Deylan Peevski, a former head of Bulgaria's main intelligence agency (for a few days, after which he resigned prompted by widespread protests in the summer of 2013) and owner of the New Bulgarian Media Group. His group has six newspapers and controls nearly 80 per cent of print media distribution.
The government's allocation of EU funding to certain media outlets is conducted with a complete lack of transparency, in effect bribing them to go easy on the government in their reporting or refrain from covering certain problematic stories altogether. Threats and attacks against journalists have intensified in recent months. It can prove dangerous to be a journalist in Bulgaria, the report concludes. PK/MY
/МЙ/
MY1314NW.105
105 POLITICS-PRESS FREEDOM-REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS-BULGARIA
Bulgaria Continues
to Fall in World Press
Freedom Index, Ranking Lowest in EU
Paris, April 25 (BTA) - Bulgaria continues to fall in the World Press Freedom Index and is ranked 111th in the world - lower than any other European Union member, says the annual report by the international NGO Reporters without Borders. Bulgaria's ranking deteriorated from 2017, when it ranked 109th. The report further recalls that this country has fallen from 36th position in 2006.
Although the current holder of the European Council's rotating presidency (until the end of June 2018), Bulgaria is now lower in the Index than all the countries in the western Balkans, some of which are candidates for EU membership, the report reads.
Corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs is widespread. The most notorious embodiment of this aberrant state of affairs is Deylan Peevski, a former head of Bulgaria's main intelligence agency (for a few days, after which he resigned prompted by widespread protests in the summer of 2013) and owner of the New Bulgarian Media Group. His group has six newspapers and controls nearly 80 per cent of print media distribution.
The government's allocation of EU funding to certain media outlets is conducted with a complete lack of transparency, in effect bribing them to go easy on the government in their reporting or refrain from covering certain problematic stories altogether. Threats and attacks against journalists have intensified in recent months. It can prove dangerous to be a journalist in Bulgaria, the report concludes. PK/MY
/МЙ/
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