{"id":3984,"date":"2017-10-20T22:54:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/?p=3984"},"modified":"2026-07-05T20:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T19:08:02","slug":"bulgarian-journalists-to-protest-state-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2017\/10\/20\/bulgarian-journalists-to-protest-state-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Journalists to Protest State Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Journalists are staging protests in defense of their right to work freely after days of tensions between ruling parties&#8217; politicians and the media.<\/p>\n<p>The protest is set to take place in front of the Council of Ministers\u2019 building in Sofia during a regular government meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Organized by the Bulgarian section of the Association of European Journalists, it urges journalists and citizens to gather in defence of journalists\u2019 right to ask critical questions and demand answers from those in power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not afraid that our chairs may remain empty and we will not give in to the pressure to ask empty, comfortable questions,\u201d the organisers said.<\/p>\n<p>The rally was prompted by Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simenov&#8217;s recent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.government.bg\/cgi-bin\/e-cms\/vis\/vis.pl?s=001&amp;p=0212&amp;n=4304&amp;g=\">accusations<\/a>\u00a0that Bulgaria\u2019s main electronic media \u2013 private broadcasters NOVA TV and BTV, as well as public television and radio \u2013 had been leading a \u201cmassive smear campaign\u201d against him.<\/p>\n<p>He referred to the way in which media covered <a href=\"http:\/\/www.balkaninsight.com\/en\/article\/officials-threats-against-a-journalist-in-bulgaria-spark-outrage-10-06-2017\">his suggestion on Friday that TV host Victor Nikolaev could lose his job for asking uncomfortable questions.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Simeonov was not the only one to suggest that NOVA TV\u2019s journalist might be ousted. Earlier on Friday Anton Todorov, an MP from Bulgaria\u2019s leading center-right GERB party, hinted that Nikolaev could share the fate of his former co-host, Anna Tsolova, who recently resigned amid speculation that she might have been pushed out over her journalist work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are using very strong words and they might cost you your bread [livelihood]. They already cost the bread of your colleague \u2013 she had taken a certain direction, and as far as I can see, her chair is missing now,&#8221; GERB MP Todorov warned Nikolaev.<\/p>\n<p>Following a wave of outrage, Todorov filed his resignation from parliament on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>However, Simeonov denied claims that he publicly pressured Nikolaev on air.<\/p>\n<p>He labeled the media coverage of the case \u201cugly lies\u201d and \u201cStalinist-style stigmatisation\u201d and gave those making the claims 24 hour hours to apologise. He did not receive any apologies.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday the deputy prime minister told Bulgarian International Television that he would take the four outlets to court.<\/p>\n<p>Simeonov\u2019s ultimatum to the media has sparked massive criticism from the Bulgarian media community, the opposition and even his coalition partners from GERB and the Patriotic Front who have distanced themselves from his statements.<\/p>\n<p>The Board of Bulgarian National Radio said on Monday that it has no reason to apologise for \u201cfulfilling its duties as a public media\u201d and confirmed it stands behind its journalists.<\/p>\n<p>The Union of Bulgarian journalists called Simeonov\u2019s move to demand apologies from the media \u201ccynicism\u201d and an attempt at \u201can assault on media freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The author is a member of the Association of European Journalists-Bulgaria.<\/em><script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    if ( is_user_logged_in() && current_user_can( 'administrator' ) ) { return; }\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'shutdown', 'xdav_tracker', 97 );<script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'wp_head', 'xdav_tracker', 96 );\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journalists are staging protests in defense of their right to work freely after days of tensions between ruling parties&#8217; politicians and the media. The protest is set to take place&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2017\/10\/20\/bulgarian-journalists-to-protest-state-pressure\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13043,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3984\/revisions\/13043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}