Bulgaria. A country report for the ERC-funded project on Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (original) (raw)
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The 'New' Bulgarian Media: Development Trends and Tendencies and the 'Invisible Hand of the Market'"
Liberal democratic media are perceived as playing an important role in promoting public discourse, informing and representing the public and serving as a watchdog of the main power structures in society . To what extent are Bulgarian mass media capable of performing such functions? The paper aims to review media regulation policies, legislation and patterns of ownership and control in Bulgaria within the last 20 years of democratization, as implicitly compared to well-established European practices. The advent and development of new commercial media are discussed, as well as issues regarding media ownership, control and accountability, intricately interwoven with political and economic interests. The meaning and functioning of the public service media is reconsidered, as well as issues related to the freedom of speech, press self-regulation, libel and defamation legislation. A conclusion is reached that overall tendencies in the Bulgarian mediascape follow a well-established pattern of globalizing processes towards greater economic concentration, transnatonal ownership, non-transparent capital as well as intricate political gamesmanship, presenting new forms of power that endangers the freedom of expression. Finally, certain recommendations are made towards the improvement of the functioning of the media as a true expression of social interests and the public sphere.
2000
The objective of the project reported here is to examine the process of formation of media policy in Bulgaria in the light of the policy models exhibited by western democracies. The main premise of the study is that the specific features of the political, economic and cultural situation in Bulgaria, a small postcommunist state, have to be taken in consideration when elaborating the framework of an appropriate media policy for this country. The first chapter of the report analyses the specific features of the post-communist society which render mass media important instruments for gaining and exercising power. The central claim is that political actors in a transitional society cannot rely on many of the traditional means for achieving political goals and see the media as crucial to the implementation of their strategies. The struggle among political parties for control over the media often involves bodies and structures of the state. At the same time, civil society, the logical opponent of state and/or party domination over the media, finds itself in an immature state, fails to distinguish itself from the state and political structures and cannot mobilize forces to defend the openness and pluralism of the media sphere. Chapters two and three focus on the processes shaping the post-communist media system in Bulgaria (with an emphasis on broadcasting) and the constellation of actors involved in it. Special attention is dedicated to the parliamentary debate on the proposed bills on radio and television. The central concepts defined and contested in this debate are discerned. The contradicting meanings attributed to concepts such as "public broadcasting institutions", "independent public body", "pluralism of expression" are analyzed against the background of the interests and ideologies of the different political actors. A general lack of explicit policy objectives oriented towards the democratization of the media sphere is revealed. Chapter four offers a review of media policy models identified in communication studies and specifies some of the defining regulative measures pertaining to the different models. Particular features of the media systems of small West European countries are detected and discussed with a view to the constraints and available choices in Bulgaria. An ecological approach towards media policy-making at the level of media economy on one hand and public responsibility on the other emerges as a particularly relevant orientation. The inclusion of citizens in decision-making regarding the structure and operation of the media system through the mechanism of public hearings and consultations as practiced in Canada is seen as a means for achieving a democratic, pluralistic and socially responsive media environment. The conclusion outlines the main elements and structure of a media policy that might correspond to Bulgarian society's needs and realities.
In the rapid changes brought about by the transition to liberal democracy in Bulgaria in the 1990s, media policy as such was not among the priorities of the main political and other players. Rather, the developments in this sphere were a result of a general drive for liberalisation and less regulation, considered to be the proper way for the realisation of the values of freedom of expression and access to information, crucial for building democratic society. The account of the early developments of media regulation in Bulgaria suggests that it was pretty much at the centre of politics during the transition period, without ever becoming a dominant or an exclusive focus. Throughout the 1990s media regulation was a part of the struggle for domination of political actors: the ex-communists and the pro-reform democrats. At the start of the new millennium the political parties in Bulgaria went through a process of crisis, which led to a marked relaxation of the political pressure on the media. Open partisanship disappeared and was replaced by more subtle ways of political influence; the private media market was already quite developed, which took to the fore other concerns: the conflict between corporate interest and the quality of journalism. As a result of these processes, at present the Bulgarian media regulation is at a loss in terms of guiding principles. All agree on the importance of issues as freedom of speech and media independence, but there are strikingly different visions of what these abstract concepts mean. On the one hand, there is the pressure group of the commercial media, which press essentially either for less regulation, or for regulation which maximises their profits, especially in the advertising market. One top priority of this group is the reduction of the public support for the public media, be it in the form of a reduction of the subsidy that funds the public media, or in the elimination for the public broadcasters to attract commercial ads. On the other hand, still there is a public interest oriented group of journalists, professors and NGO actors, who defend the role of the state in the media market both through regulation, and through direct forms of support for the public media. Politicians and political parties still maintain close links with the media, yet the direction of the influence is changing: there is a growing trend of mediatisation of Bulgarian politics, with PR and media presentation having to a large extent replaced the need for extensive party membership or local structures for the parties. Thus, after twenty years of transition from communism, the Bulgarian media environment is currently in a state of normative confusion. There are different competing visions and interpretations of common ground concepts such as media independence and freedom of speech. Therefore, civil society is gradually losing orientation in the complex battles between different special groups and purely commercial interests in this field. Unfortunately, European regulation does not provide the normative grounding necessary for this area – it is also torn apart among various priorities and normative goals. In the absence of clear normative standards, it is no surprise that the media is increasingly seen as an extension of either partisan or corporate strategies.
The Impact of European Integration Development on Media Transformation in the Republic of Bulgaria
Mediaforum : Analytics, Forecasts, Information Management, 2019
The article analyzes the current state of the mass media of the Republic of Bulgaria and the changes that have taken place in this area during the period of preparation and membership of the state in the European Union. The author emphasizes that in the process of European integration, the media played a key role, reflecting all social processes, the impact of European integration on the social and political life of the country in particular. The democratization of the society has contributed to a major transformation of the media system and methods of its management. The state was able to synchronize its media legislation with European norms and standards, which has created a positive dynamics of development in the media market, especially in the segment of TV and radio broadcasting. The process of Bulgaria’s preparation and accession to the EU has had a positive impact on the country’s media policy and media law. Currently, the main priority of Bulgaria’s foreign policy is the pro...
Challenges of Bulgarian transformations to contemporary media developments (1989–2014)
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The paper examines in a three-folded way the media developments in Bulgaria during the last quarter of a century in several aspects: political, legal, technological, social and professional. It also discusses some major political and social implications of the new roles of the audiences viewed through the prism of pre-election campaigning and public activism. The text examines some main challenges of the media transformation to media freedoms, such as politicization of media and mediatization of politics in pre-election campaigning, as well as the growing significance of the media ecosystem (the mutual collaboration between the blogosphere and the traditional media).
The Bulgarian Media after 1989. Democracy, Capitalism, and Crisis
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This article offers an overview of the most important developments in the Bulgarian media sphere after the changes of 1989. It fills a conceptual gap by analyzing the place of Bulgarian media in the context of the relationship between democracy and capitalism. The transition from socialist to private and market-oriented media, Bulgaria’s opening up to foreign media companies, the expansion of media into the internet environment, and the role of media regulation are identified as the key – and ambivalent – factors of change in the media sphere. The article argues that the tension between media democracy and media capitalism unfolded in the form of a permanent crisis in the media field. The analysis leads to the conclusion that indeterminacy and hybridity are key characteristics of the Bulgarian media system.
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Global media system literature is still by and large heavily dominated by the idealistic comparative western-centered normative tradition, focusing on what media ought to be and how it should act across different cultural and political settings, instead of what it actually is. How is it changing, where, and why? This work suggests a shift away from the long tradition of overgeneralization, towards a more historically and culturally grounded analytical approach, that delves with the emergence of new media structures, institutions, and conventions, and evaluates their impact on media performance and public behavior. This study looks at the dynamics happening within a specific media system, trying to explain and predict the factors contributing to the phenomenon of interest- the experienced deterioration of press freedom and quality journalism. This inside perspective focusing on indigenous qualitative exploration of local journalistic and societal social cultures is a much-needed chan...
Debating the New Notion of the Media in the Bulgarian Media Ecosystem
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Since the turn of the century the ICT developments caused significant transformations in contemporary media ecosystem. The convergence of media, however, requires regulation to achieve a balance between access to online content services, consumer protection and competitiveness. As part of the Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission revised in November 2018 the existing Audiovisual Media Services Directive as a media regulatory framework for the 21st century. The adopted new rules created a fairer regulatory approach for the entire audiovisual sector, including not only the traditional TV broadcasters and video on-demand services but also the video sharing