site.btaElectronic Media Regulator Chair Resigns to Stay Out of Licensing of TV Owned by Controversial Media Group

Electronic Media Regulator Chair Resigns to Stay Out of Licensing of TV Owned by Controversial Media Group

Sofia, February 25 (BTA) - The chairman of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), Georgi Lozanov, said Thursday that he resigns so as to not be involved in the licensing of a TV channel of a controversial media owner.

Lozanov's statement is published in the CEM website.

He said that he has examined carefully the papers of Pik Broadcasting AD and found nothing there that would justify a refusal to issue a TV licence.

Pik Broadcasting is owned by Nedyalko Nedyalkov who is also the owner of Pik news agency. It is notorious for its sensational reports and is suspected of close links with MP Delyan Peevski. Nedyalkov has always denied being a front for somebody else in the Pik ownership.

Lozanov said in his statement that he has always aspired to apply the letter of the law irrespective of his personal preferences. "At the same time I don't want my vote as a CEM member and my signature as its chairman to make me part of the legalization of the use in the electronic media of the aggressive rhetoric of the on-line media outlet of the same name, which easily goes into the hostile speech register though not necessartily along racial, ethnic or religious lines."