site.btaMedia Review: August 31

MEDIA REVIEW AUGUST 31

The morning shows of the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), bTV and Nova TV feature studio discussions on the resignation of Interior Ministry Secretary General Petar Todorov. The topic is less apparent in the print dailies.

Another dominant topic on the television programmes is an incident with the 11-year-old children struck by lightning during a training session at the Dunav stadium in Ruse, in which one boy died and the other is in serious condition in hospital. The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) also had an interview with lightning protection expert engineer Hristomir Ivanov.

The main topics on the frontpages of print dailies are the upcoming local elections on October 29 (Duma, Trud, 24 Chassa), illegal migration (Telegraph), safety conditions at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (24 Chassa, Trud), and minorities’ language integration (Trud). Todorov’s resignation is among the headlines on the front page of Telegraph.

OCTOBER ELECTIONS

bTV has a report for the upcoming start of the autumn session of Parliament at 9 in the morning on Friday. The old building will be closed for a three-year refurbishment and the session will be held in what used to be the communist party house across the street from the President's administration and the government HQs. The MPs will start the new session with smaller wages due to the late adoption of the 2023 state budget. Deputies are paid the equivalent of three average monthly wages in the public sector, which makes BGN 5,661 but that does not include the seniority bonus and the extras for participation in committees. The Parliament Chair gets the most: an MP's wage plus 55%, which is some BGN 9,000, the report said.

Trud has two headlines on the upcoming local elections and machine voting: an interview with constitutional law professor Plamen Kirov, who says that machine voting does not impede vote buying or the so-called “controlled voting”; and an article entitled “voting machines cost BGN 8.3 million to the state”. Kirov criticizes the current regular government of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel and says it is on the brink of collapse.

The frontpage article in Duma is on the upcoming local elections in October and their cost for the state – BGN 151.1 million. The article’s headline reads that “the local elections will be once again controlled by a private company”.

A headline on the front page of 24 Chassa says that former regional governors are entering the race of the local elections in October, “attempting to beat incumbent mayors”.

POLITICS

An article on Duma’s frontpage is headed by a quote by Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova who also criticizes the current regular government. She says the Denkov-Gabriel government is depriving Bulgarians of their nationality.

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Mediapool.bg writes that Yavor Bozhankov, an MP from the group of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, announced in a Facebook post that he will propose legislative changes to limit the powers of the president "to restore the balance of power". "It is absolutely necessary to revise the presidential quotas and powers given by the National Assembly. I have done a thorough review of these powers and prepared a bill that takes away the president's quotas in state regulators and various state bodies," Bozhankov wrote. He was a Socialist deputy in the previous Parliament but was expelled by his fellow group members after he voted in favour of sending military aid to Ukraine. In addition to revising the presidential powers, Bozhankov's bill also introduces restrictions regarding the personnel changes that caretaker cabinets can make.

MIGRATION

On bTV, the head of the State Agency for Refugees, Mariana Tosheva, says that the occupancy rate in some refugee centres in Bulgaria has increased dramatically. The interview followed a severe fight among migrants in a facility in the southern town of Lyubimets earlier in August in which three inmates were hurt. Tosheva said: "There is a dramatic increase of the inmates at the Lyubimets centre and that is causing an escalation of tension. The occupancy rate is over 150%, which means 2,200 people for the two facilities, in Lyubimets and Busmantsi. In all six centres of the State Agency for Refugees, the occupancy rate is 75%. If it goes over 90%, there are many risks both for the inmates, for the staff and for the people who live nearby." She added though that the authorities are taking good care of the security at the facilities for migrants and the Interior Ministry carefully selects the staff.

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The top story of Telegraph is illegal migration to Bulgaria. The main headline reads that 1,000 illegal migrants enter the country each week. The numbers are based on non-official data on the number of detained illegal migrants over the past month. The daily writes that the foreign nationals are now using a new route.

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An article in Duma reports that 495,000 Bulgarians are daily labour migrants.

EDUCATION AND INTEGRATION

Trud’s top story is about a working group of the Education Ministry discussing ways to improve language integration for minorities whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian. The daily writes that there are no official proposals and only speculations about introducing Bulgarian as a foreign language in the school system.

"In the working group, no one from the Education Ministry raised the issue of Bulgarian being taught as a foreign language. The leading opinion of all those involved in school education is that we need additional language support, additional classes, interest classes, so that children from traditional minorities learn Bulgarian well, without further separating them, segregating them," Deyan Kolev from Amalipe Centre explained in an interview for BNR on the occasion of the concerns about the learning of Bulgarian as a foreign language by children for whom it is not their mother tongue.

HEALTH INSURANCE FUND SIPHONING SCHEME

On Nova TV, Anton Tonev, who is advisor to the Health Minister, commented a ring for syphoning millions of leva from the National Health Insurance Fund through purchases of assistive devices for disabled people. The ring has been exposed by the local health insurance authorities and police have arrested seven people, including five doctors. Tonev commented that apparently control needs to be tightened but warned that it could be at the cost of slowing down the procedure for procurement of assistive devices to people who need it.

In the same morning show, medical law specialist Maria Petrova said that certain hospitals and people enjoy operating under an umbrella which allows their corrupt practices to remain unpunished. She urges the people whose names and personal data have been used, to assert their rights. The lawyer also says that digitization in health care can be an antidote to such schemes.

ECONOMY

Duma writes on its front page that olive oil prices have risen as a result of the wildfires in Greece.

HOME AFFAIRS

Telegraph has an interview with lifeguard Ivan Georgiev who warns vacationers at the seaside to be wary of the water and follow the recommendations by authorities. He notes that often times beach goers disregard the beach warning flags, which indicate whether it is safe to swim in the sea or enter the water with pool inflatables.

The leading story on the front page of 24 Chassa is about “irresponsible beach goers”. The headline reads “lifeguards want beach police”. Lifeguards say that their worker category must be upgraded in order for them to have any authority on beaches and protect the people there.

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24 Chassa has an interview with Lyubomir Nikolov, head of the Sofia Regional Directorate to the Interior Ministry, who says that robberies in the capital have sharply declined after police officers have detained eleven robbers with character nicknames.

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The topic of Duma’s highlight column is a petition near Yambol, southeast Bulgaria, against NATO military bases in the region. The petition has been signed by 2,000 people.

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Front page photo in Duma is of the performance of the Bon-bon children’s choir during the Apollonia festival in Sozopol, on the Black Sea coast.

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Front page photo in Telegraph is of a Roma wedding in downtown Sofia. The caption reads that the event received a lot of attention by both citizens and tourists.