State institutions and local authorities increasingly establish themselves as a leading source of external pressure on journalists, according to a study by the Association of European Journalists – Bulgaria (AEJ) on press freedom in Bulgaria in 2022.
Each passing year, national, regional, and local institutions employ various tools to exert pressure on media and individual journalists, often attributed to economic actors and advertisers. Interference in journalistic content is an inherent part of the Bulgarian media landscape, as the study’s findings show.
Political interference in the media will persist for a long time. Politicians continue to exert significant influence over the media, and every third of the surveyed 204 journalists indicated that the local municipality pays certain media outlets to publish pre-prepared content.
A well-established practice is the special treatment that authorities show towards critical journalists compared to those who predominantly write in service of the ruling powers. This treatment manifests as refusals or systematic delays in obtaining public information, removal from press release lists, or avoiding interviews with media featuring critical journalistic voices. There are also practices by party headquarters and state institutions to not inform editorial offices in a timely manner about press conferences or current matters of public interest. Every third journalist reported experiencing distinctly negative treatment from the authorities, the study reveals.
A new phenomenon has emerged: online harassment, insults, and threats on social media.
While 2022 saw a slight decline in external pressure against media, internal pressure is on the rise. This is primarily expressed through self-censorship that journalists impose on themselves. With each passing year, they lose their resistance against the pressure on their work, as the study notes. The number of journalists stating they avoid certain topics for fear of losing their job is increasing.
Every third journalist shares that they have received insults, threats, and have been victims of harassment on social media. One in ten has been threatened with legal action due to their publications, and half of the journalists facing lawsuits noted that the reasons were related to political or economic interests.
Regional media are disappearing.
The survey reinforces observations from recent years regarding the centralization of journalism in Sofia at the expense of disappearing regional media. Two out of three journalists participating in the survey work in the capital. This trend, unchanged since 2015, creates serious barriers to media pluralism, the right to informed choice, and the democratic existence of local and regional communities, as highlighted in the study.
The AEJ’s survey on press freedom in Bulgaria has been conducted since 2011. The scope is national, but the survey is not representative of the professional community. One reason for this is the lack of complete and reliable official data on those working in the media sector in the country.
Data is collected through a voluntary online survey, which was traditionally opened on May 3 – International Press Freedom Day, and closed on June 10.
In 2022, 204 individuals participated in the survey, including reporters, section and chief editors, media owners, and university lecturers.
The goal of the survey is to outline the problems of the media environment in the country and how changes in the environment—pandemic, war, political and economic uncertainty, and a series of parliamentary elections—affect the media sector.
