FE ATUR E A RT ICLE S
Freedom of the press in Bulgaria Being one of the poorest EU members, Bulgaria has the lowest standards of press freedom in Europe. Bulgarians are calling for a fundamental change in the system.
©©picture alliance / NurPhoto / Hristo Rusev
by Christopher Nehring, historian and expert on Bulgaria
Thousands of people across Bulgaria took to the streets in 2020 to demand basic rights such as media freedom.
22 Weltzeit 2 | 2021
A prime minister and an opposition leader who don’t talk to journalists? What is inconceivable elsewhere has been reality in Bulgaria since the April parliamentary elections. Both the election winner, Boyko Borisov, and the party leader of the second strongest party, Slavi Trifonov, have been practicing a silent media boycott. They send their messages almost exclusively via Facebook; discussions and inquiries are as impossible as they are undesired. That Borisov is boycotting a media system he played a significant role in creating is just the latest threat to press freedom in Bulgaria.
