Over 25 million BGN was paid by the administration of former Varna mayor Ivan Portnih from GERB to media and PR agencies during his last term.
This revelation comes after a thorough investigation conducted by the Varna Municipality and the Varna Municipal Council, prompted by a query during a council meeting by Martin Dimitrov (PP-DB).
Radio “Darik Varna” and the website Nova Varna were among the best-funded by the authorities.
The colossal amount of 2.5 million BGN was allocated to media and PR agencies for covering news from Varna during the last term of mayor Ivan Portnih (2019-2023).
Among private media outlets reporting on local news and politics, Radio Darik topped the list with a total of 226,066 BGN over four years. In second place was the media outlet Nova Varna (novavarna.net), which accumulated a total of 170,027 BGN through several contracts.
In third place is the media group “Focus,” represented in Varna by the local site varna24.bg. This media outlet entered into contracts with the Varna Municipality totaling 128,000 BGN.
The following two spots are occupied by national newspapers 24 Chasa and Trud, which received 116,280 BGN and 98,000 BGN through their commercial entities, respectively.
Further down the list are the website Chernomore.bg with 86,400 BGN, RNS.bg with 44,000 BGN, and some notable entities such as the long-defunct site topnewsbg.com (19,760 BGN), represented by the controversial associate of municipal councilor Genadi Atanasov from the local party “Svoboda” – Rumen Shirokov, according to reports from the press center of PP-DB in Varna.
Among private media, the most money was received by Nova Broadcasting Group AD, along with its partner Di Industry Ltd., for filming a feature film within the territory of Varna Municipality – 288,000 BGN.
The financial flows appear to be two, based on the investigation.
Contracts with media were signed directly – through decisions of the Varna Municipal Council – or through a special media fund within the “Culture” fund.
The second flow represents a financial framework of 200,000 BGN per year, established in the last two years of ex-mayor Portnih’s term.
About half of the funds were allocated to private media, while the other half went to the public broadcasters BNT and BNR.
There is also a third direction – a financial framework of over 700,000 BGN contracted with the Sofia-based PR agency APRA.
All this raises suspicions about the search for so-called media comfort, commented the regional leader of PP Varna, Nikolai Stefanov.
Certain local media outlets have been funded with public money, without which they subsequently went off the air. One such case is that of Darik Varna, which closed shortly after these financial flows were interrupted in the current term, adds Stefanov.
“How can there be independent journalism when the very existence of a media outlet depends on the authorities?” asks the requester of the investigation, Martin Dimitrov (PP-DB), adding, “The most important thing in journalism is objectivity and political impartiality, because the media shape public opinion. They play a crucial role in society, and they should not be beholden to the powerful of the day.”
A simple check in the commercial register also shows that some of the companies that have entered into media contracts with the administration of the former mayor from GERB have fundamentally different lines of business.
This is the case with RNS.bg, which is represented by a company engaged in the production and sale of electricity from renewable energy sources. Completely unrelated to the media is the second most profitable news site, Nova Varna, whose owner Georgi Kostov has entered into contracts for media services worth over 170,000 BGN through a company focused on “developing and implementing innovative solutions in the field of automation and automatization.”
