Experts criticise local elections campaign

The local elections and a referendum on the introduction of electronic voting took place on the same day, October 25th 2015. On this occasion the Foundation Media Democracy conducted a special analysis of Bulgarian media.

The focus was set on the performance of the electoral campaigns: which strategies were chosen, how were the election campaigns shown in the media? Furthermore, FMD identified tendencies within certain media types, such as tabloids, radio and online platforms.

In comparison with former election campaigns the team of FMD didn’t see any positive change altogether but noticed once again deficits of the campaigns. They weren’t sufficiently citizen-oriented and the political slogans appeared to be too clichéd. Hate speech was brought up in connection with the election campaign, especially in tabloids, online media and social networks.

"In the year 2015 the communication style of some election candidates dropped down to a grotesque level, which we know merely from the beginning of the transition time in the 90ies," said Orlin Spassov, Director of the Foundation Media Democracy.

Here you can find the full edition of the analysis in Bulgarian.