Relations of power and deficits in the Bulgarian media scene - Media Programme Southeast Europe
Event Reports
The Ambassador of the United States of America Marcie B. Ries, the head of the KAS Media Program South East Europe Christian Spahr, and CSD director Dr. Ognian Shentov opened the conference "Media as an Instrument for State Capture" on 11 March in Sofia.
According to Ries, Bulgarians are not well informed about the media ownership in their own country. "I think we can acknowledge that in Bulgaria, there is a problem that in many cases we do not know who really owns the media and therefore consumers cannot have an informed opinion about the objectivity – or lack of it – of what they are reading.", said Ries. Furthermore she emphasized that the concentration of media ownership is strongly connected to political interests. By this, the media diversity had been heavily undermined. In her opinion, the Bulgarian media legislation is at least good on paper. But it still lacks successful implementation. The US Ambassador quoted a representative opinion poll conducted by the KAS Media Program South East Europe which revealed that only every sixth Bulgarian believes in independence of the national media.
KAS expert Christian Spahr expressed concerns that media representatives and politicians do not sufficiently disclose their relations – especially aspects regarding the funding of media. According to Spahr, progress on this issue is urgently needed. Spahr doubted that a number of media owners are truly interested in delivering journalistic products of high quality. Instead, they utilize media for their political and economic goals. Hence, the KAS Media Program South East Europe will continue supporting projects which examine the dependencies in the media sector. Furthermore, Spahr quoted a KAS study conducted by the experts Krum Blagov and Orlin Spassov revealing influence of different interest groups on the Bulgarian media.
Dr. Maria Yordanova, law expert at CSD, pointed out that the Bulgarian legislation lacks efficient mechanisms for the disclosure of media funding. The official owners are rarely the significant decision-makers.
Prof. Nelly Ognianova from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski spoke on transparency of the media ownership, media legislation and deficits of its implementation in Bulgaria. She recommended media laws of other European Union member states such as Austria, where public registries record the state expenses and funding of the media. According to Ognianova, this is a reliable mechanism which would lead to more media transparency in Bulgaria as well. She pointed out that the media should be analysed in two different ways: on the one hand regarding their concentration on the media market and on the other hand regarding the diversity of opinions.
Dr. Alina Dobreva from the "Center of media pluralism and media freedom" in Florence, Christian Spahr and Ognian Zlatev, head of the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria, spoke about different factors influencing the national media. The panel discussion was moderated by CSD expert Dimiter Markov. Dr. Alina Dobreva presented findings concerning the risks for media pluralism in several EU countries. She emphasised that a lack of information and data about media ownership could have an unfavourable impact on the media landscape.
Christian Spahr explained the media ownership structures in Germany and France. In regard to the regulation, Spahr uttered that different needs of individual media genres should be taken into consideration as well.
In addition to that, Spahr deepened his suggestions for a modern media legislation and self-regulation in an interview with the nationwide newspaper Trud. The interview was published on the following day.
