site.btaQuality Journalism Is Harder to Finance, National Radio Director General Says

The Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Milen Mitev, believes that it is becoming increasingly difficult to finance quality journalism, "because more and more people believe that anyone can be a journalist and create audio and video content with just their phone.” Mitev was speaking at a conference on "The Impact of Fake News on European Democracies" held Thursday at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of Sofia University.

According to him, it is increasingly difficult to explain the point of having media organization with a cumbersome structure, which, however, provides certain guarantees that the information it provides is verified. “This financial pressure comes at a time when there is a huge need for strong media. Efficiency is a good thing, but when we want to counter disinformation, traditional media, both public and commercial, needs to be strong. I recently had the opportunity to speak to the Director-General of the BBC, who said that as the BBC World Service withdraws from various countries, releasing frequencies, they are immediately taken over by Russian channels, which in itself, I think, is a sufficient example,” Mitev said.

He noted that it is all a matter of investment, to what extent societies want to invest in their media. “It is obvious that the media in a democratic society cannot be used as an instrument of power. And perhaps that is why those in power are less interested in us. But we can still be a weapon, although not for attack, but for defense. We are a line of defense for all people living in democratic countries, which does not allow the penetration of disinformation,” the director general pointed out during the conference.

Mitev cited a 2022 Eurobarometer survey, according to which public media news enjoys the highest level of trust in 28 out of 31 European countries that participated in the survey, including 25 European Union Member States. “On average for the EU, 49% of citizens rank public media as the most reliable source of information, followed by the press - 39%. Commercial media are at 27%. This shows a huge difference in the average trust in the news of public and commercial media,” said Milen Mitev.

The more citizens in a country trust public media, the higher the level of satisfaction with democracy in the country. The more citizens believe that public media news is reliable, the higher the media freedom index of the country, the director general of the public radio added.

"Unfortunately, the devaluation of the journalistic profession is a fact today, and that is why more and more people are choosing another profession, which they believe will be more profitable. But today, journalism, more than ever, is a mission. It is no incident, the responsibilities of public media, stipulated by the law in every country, are called “public mission”. It may sound like a cliche, it may sound a bit like a sermon, but when a person works in media for a while, he realizes that this is actually true. The work of a journalist is not just a job from nine to five, but is truly a mission to educate society, a mission to protect the truth, a mission to protect democracy," Milen Mitev pointed out.

According to him, in recent years there has been a deficit of democratic values ​​and a certain pessimism in all European societies. “If a decade ago, we faced the challenges thinking that whatever happens now, tomorrow will be better, today we don’t seem to have so many reasons for optimism,” Mitev said. In such an environment, disinformation thrives easily, and perhaps it is part of the reason for more pessimism in our societies, he added.

Mitev commented that information overload, increasing competition for audience time and the devaluation of the journalistic profession are among the main challenges media and societies face today.

The conference “The Impact of Fake News on European Democracies” was opened earlier on April 10, by Prof. Veselina Valkanova, Dean of the Sofia University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication. She presented the project “Media Masters: Enhancing Media Literacy”, showcasing a board game, and a mobile application related to media literacy.