Photo: Spas Spasov
Exactly two weeks ago, the journalist Elena Kirova, host at Varna’s “Cherno More” TV, left her job after her show “Posoki.eu” was suddenly taken off air and her salary was significantly reduced.
Formally, the decision is hers and the private television does not owe any explanations for what changes it makes to its program. However, the topic of freedom of speech stands behind the difficult to be confirmed officially but compelling coincidence between the termination of the host’s contract, an interview with the Mayor of Varna, the questions in it and the reaction of a municipal councilor from the ruling party in the city.
Interview during the campaign
“Cherno More” is a small and uncritical television. It is one of the many regional media in Bulgaria, existing with the uncontrolled financial support of the local administrations. Its owner is “Holding Varna”, affiliated with “Chimimport” and “Central Cooperative Bank” – the business group that also owns “Bulgaria On Air” TV.
On October 30, halfway between the two rounds of local elections, Elena Kirova interviewed Varna Mayor Ivan Portnih. At that time, he was campaigning for the runoff, where he won a third term.
“The interview was requested by “Bulgaria On Air” TV on October 30 and was recorded the same day, the journalist told “Dnevnik”. She clarifies that there was no pre-arranged scenario for the conversation to be made from Varna for the larger television in Sofia: „I was advised to ask Portnich why he did not win in the first round, what support he relies on, the problems surrounding the reconstruction of the city boulevard „Vasil Levski“ and other things that I consider important.“ According to her, the interview should have been broadcast in the morning block of „Bulgaria on Air“ on October 31.“
During her conversation, however, Kirova also asked Portnich about things that TV “Cherno More” has not commented on so far.
According to her story, the only information about the interview that cannot be seen anywhere; so the first question was related to two publications in Israeli media from February 20, 2018. At that time, Portnich was visiting the port city of Haifa to negotiate its twinning with Varna. Although loudly promoted at the beginning, the visit ended prematurely, quietly and without result. And the municipal administration in Varna kept silent about the reasons by not publishing a single announcement about what was done in Haifa.
The only version of the failed twinning appears in two Israeli online publications – „News Haifa Curriot“ and the site of the conservative TV channel „Channel 20“, with the same author. „The mayor of Bulgaria’s third largest city stayed at a prestigious hotel in Haifa and, according to evidence obtained by a “News Haifa Curiot” reporter, in the evening – after his scheduled meeting that day, he got drunk after consuming large quantities of alcohol. According to other evidence, the mayor of Varna even sexually harassed a hotel employee,“ reads the text of one of the articles (a machine translation from Hebrew into several Western European languages has been used – author’s note).
The second article explains that „the disturbing incident came to the attention of the leaders of the municipality of Haifa and as a result the visit of the high-ranking (guest) was cancelled, as well as were several meetings scheduled for him later in the week“. „The foreign ministry was not notified by the hosts in Haifa. The Municipality of Haifa confirmed what happened, but did not provide more details,“ the article said.
At the end of October – on the eve of the local elections, Bulgarian websites published information about the articles of the Israeli media, and Portnich reacted with a post on Facebook, where he called what was written „election techniques“ and replied: „If all this was true, then how I would personally meet in Varna the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu a little later after the „scandal“?“. The post was accompanied by photos of Portnih meeting Netanyahu at Varna airport. The Israeli Prime Minister indeed landed in Varna in early November 2018, but for a meeting in “Euxinograd” with the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Romania at the invitation of his colleague Boyko Borissov.
Elena Kirova said, that in the interview with her, Ivan Portnich explained in general that he would not comment on the issue of Haifa because his campaign is positive.
According to the journalist, her second „non-protocol“ question was about the quality of the three-kilometer long city boulevard „Vasil Levski“, which was repaired before the election with over BGN 120 million and which caused numerous comments. The journalist explained that she asked why the two-story roundabouts of the boulevard were sloping and irregularly shaped as well as why the price of the boulevard is so high: „The mayor replied that the boulevard is very useful because it can be passed through in 10 minutes. The data on its price were public and all Varna residents knew them.“
Who are you?
The journalist claims that she did not know whether the interview with Portnich was paid, as can be by law the television appearances of the candidates for mayors and municipal councilors during campaigns. However, it was apparently sent to GERB’s headquarters for verification.
“I commented on some of my questions with one of the editors of “Bulgaria On Air” on the evening of October 30, because the GERB press center was dissatisfied with some of the topics in the interview. They thanked me from Sofia for announcing this, saying that they would review it and they will decide whether to cut it somewhere,“ Kirova said.
On October 31 – although it was ordered and planned in advance, the interview was not broadcast by “Bulgaria On Air”. It is not uploaded on the TV site, as is the practice. Elena Kirova learned at the subsequent internal briefing in “Cherno More” TV that due to the questions asked to Portnich her salary is reduced by 25% and the show is taken off air.
She left the same day: „It is most painful for me to talk about my motives. I was told that I had betrayed the Management. Television gave me a lot, but that day I felt that I did not want to give her anything more. I heard things that still it’s hard for me to believe and accept that I’ve heard about myself.“
Colleagues of the journalist, who were present at the briefing, claim that the tone of criticism towards her was „street slang“ or “sandlot”. According to one of them, who requested anonymity, the words of Nasya Atanasova, the TV Manager, were literally the following: „What are you – are you an investigative journalist, are you a top journalist to ask him such questions? Are you his wife, are you his mistress to ask him about Haifa?“. According to the source, it was clear from Atanasova’s words that she had not even watched the interview before the briefing.
“Dnevnik” looked for conversation the Manager of “Cherno More” TV but the telephone connection with her turned out to be impossible. Nasya Atanasova did not answer the questions either, sent to the e-mail address indicated on the television’s website.
Just parallel interviews
Diana Popova, the PR of “Bulgaria On Air” TV, gave another explanation for the non-broadcast interview.
She confirmed before “Dnevnik” that the conversation was actually scheduled to be broadcast on October 31, specifying that the TV station in Sofia has a practice of broadcasting materials prepared on their order by regional TV stations.
“In the last minutes of the preparation of their show, however, the colleagues from the morning block understood that at the same time Ivan Portnih would participate live in „Nova TV“. For this reason they had to react literally in minutes and decided not to broadcast the interview with him that was recorded in advance. After all, it is ridiculous for the Mayor of Varna to appear live and recorded on two televisions at the same time, with two different costumes or two different shirts,“ Popova explained.
Nothing of the kind
Asked for comment, Ivan Portnich – through messages from two press-services, distanced himself from the described events. Through GERB’s party press center in Varna (Portnich is the leader of the party’s local structure – editor’s note), he denied during his election campaign that he had exerted any pressure to impose a punishment on Elena Kirova.
The information service of Varna Municipality first refused to comment on the publications about the scandal in Haifa in the winter of 2018, arguing that they were written in Hebrew. After the two texts were provided to them in Bulgarian translation, they quoted Portnich’s position and the quotation literally repeated the one published on October 16 in his Facebook profile.
Until the completion of the work on this text, the Municipality in Haifa and the two media which published the information about the failed twinning with Varna, did not answer the questions that were sent to them. However, the articles are still available here and here. None of them contains data on rebuttal or the right of reply requested by Ivan Portnich’s office.
Do you understand „It-was-not-planned!?“
But the story of the actual dismissal of journalist Elena Kirova does not end there.
When the scandal with the suspended interview became public, the chairwoman of the GERB group in Varna Municipal Council Maritsa Gardeva posted on her Facebook account the following status: „Journalism is a profession almost as ancient as …. In a few words, this is the second most ancient profession”.
Journalists from the TV station, where Kirova worked until recently, commented that Gardeva, who worked previously as the media PR, was the reason for the Kirova to leave. Gardeva denied before “Dnevnik”. At the same time, she differed headlong from the facts established so far on the case.
First, the newly elected municipal councilor denied that she had posted on Facebook her insulting status for Elena Kirova. „Please do not bother me with such things! Look at my profile, there is no such post,“ she said. The status actually disappeared hours after it appeared, but can be found in dozens of places on the web as a screenshot.
