site.btaUnion of Bulgarian Journalists Marks World Press Freedom Day with National Media Campaign

Union of Bulgarian Journalists Marks World Press Freedom Day with National Media Campaign

Sofia, May 3 (BTA) - The Union of Bulgarian Journalists (UBJ)
marked World Press Freedom Day on Sunday with a national media
campaign mottoed "Freedom Depends on You!", the organization
said. The message was supported by Bulgarian National
Television, Bulgarian National Radio, BTA, several dailies
("Standart News", "Sega", "Douma" and "Zemya") and Cross news
agency.

The UBJ said: "We journalists consider this day a holiday
dedicated to the fight for the truth. The freedom of speech is
fundamental to all freedoms in society and in each person's
life. We are still trying to answer the question: how come that
in the last year Bulgaria slumped to the humiliating 106th place
 in the World Press Freedom Index."

The Union also condemned violence and terror against journalists
 worldwide, noting that in 2014, 128 of them were killed, more
than 120 were kidnapped, 40 were taken hostage and 178 were in
prison.

The Association of European Journalists (AEJ) - Bulgaria marked
World Press Freedom Day stressing that journalism is a
responsibility. "At a time when many media model their coverage
on sensationalism and do not hesitate to reveal the identity of
victims of human or mass tragedies, we deem it particularly
important to lay emphasis on the quality of information.

"While media freedom and independence are important,
professional ethics is just as important. It is unacceptable for
 the media to take benefit of personal tragedies and infringe
personal dignity only to push up their ratings," said
AEJ-Bulgaria.