Mass media in Bulgaria

Television, magazines, and newspapers in Bulgaria are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues.

Bulgarian media have a record of unbiased reporting, although they are deemed potentially at risk of political influence due to the lack of legislation to protect them.

[2] The extensive freedom of the press means that no exact number of publications can be established, although some research put an estimate of around 900 print media outlets for 2006.

[3] Internet media are growing in popularity due to the wide range of available opinions and viewpoints, lack of censorship and diverse content.

Many issues still persist in the field[4] The EU 2007 Audiovisual Media Services Directive was transposed in Bulgarian law in 2010, including the requirements for cultural diversity.

Government officials have filed suits against journalists in the past, though courts tend to favour the latter and preserve press freedom.

[7] The New Bulgarian Media Group (NBMG), owned by Irina Krasteva and controlled by her son and MP Delyan Peevski has a long history of cross-partisan pro-governmental bias.

The convergence is due to the failure in establishing quality broadsheets newspapers, leading instead popular dailies to extend their reach and occupy their niche.

Other widely distributed newspapers include Standart, Novinar, Express, Monitor, and Telegraph - the latter being the only one to increase its circulation during the crisis, due to a lower price.

[8] The regional print press include 10 dailies in the main towns of the country, as well as local publications coming out from once to three times per week.

[8] The Bulgarian print press market was totally dominated by the German WAZ group from 1996 onwards, both at national and local level.

The New Bulgarian Media Group, deemed close to the Turkish-minority Movement for Rights and Freedoms party emerged in 2007 and got own Monitor, Express, Telegraph (dailies), Politika, Weekend, Meridian Match (weeklies), the Borba newspaper and a publishing house (in the city of Veliko Turnovo).

At the turn of the century, global players such as News Corporation, Modern Times Group, Central European Media Enterprises and Fox Broadcasting Company briefly entered and subsequently exited the Bulgarian TV market due to shrinking revenues, political pressure and the effect of the global recession of 2008.

[6] The fourth free-to-air TV network is Bulgaria On Air, owned by Investor.BG (part of the controversial TIM Group of Varna).

After bTV took over Efir 2's frequencies, another competition selected Nova Television, already popular in cable networks around the country, as the second privately owned national channel in Bulgaria.

The Council for Electronic Media (CEM), established by the 1998 Radio and Television Act, checks compliance with regulations about advertising, sponsorship, copyright, protection of youth and minors, and considers violation complaints brought by experts and citizens.

[24] One of the main tool leading to official soft censorship in Bulgaria is, according to WAN IFRA, biased state funding for media.

Media owners and journalists know that in such a context critical coverage of people in government and public institutions the control or influence the allocation of funds may lead to the denial or withdrawal of such support, thus putting in danger their financial viability.

Convictions grounded in such cases are few, but the concrete possibility of prosecution entails a chilling effect on active, open and critical reporting.

[26][24] The Law on Radio and Television establishes only a general principle that a media licensing application must comply with the competition protection legislation.

[26] Unlike a number of European states, in Bulgaria there are not special rules concerning the supervision of mergers and acquisitions in the media sector.

[27] Media fall under the regulation of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) which is in charge of overseeing concentration among undertakings, prohibiting anti-competitive agreements, decisions and practices, as well as abuse of dominant position.

In such cases the Commission allows concentration if it does not lead to the establishment or increasing of a dominant position, which would significantly prevent competition in the relevant market.

[27] It thus observed that specific regulatory considerations regarding the media market, such as the need to guarantee pluralism and freedom of expression, are not taken into account by the Commission itself when overseeing concentrations.

[27] In Bulgaria, the only legal explicit restrictions on media ownership is enshrined in the Law on Radio and Television, adopted in 1998 and amended several times since then.

It also requires applicants to declare that they do not hold stakes, shares or other rights of participation in radio and television broadcasters above the threshold set by anti-trust legislation.

This provision is the result of a specific feature of the Bulgarian economy, where certain insurance companies born out of structures related to the previous regime's security services sector.

Some of the factors contributing to this concern the possibility for a publisher to be a distributor at the same time; the aggregation of ownership in non-transparent way; and political connections and dependencies influencing the sector.

It found out that in the period from 2009 to 2011 there was a pooling of the distributors on the market aiming at optimising costs exploit the advantages of economies of scale and scope.

[29][28] In the 1990s the problem affected in particular the print sector: two most influential newspapers at that time - Trud and 24 hours - were purchased by the WAZ Group.