POLITICIANS STILL CONTROL THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN BULGARIA

AIM SOFIA, 20 September, 1997

In the seven years of democracy in Bulgaria, independent journalism has managed to get through only in the press and regional radio stations. At the same time, journalists of national electronic media have remained subordinated to the state and its political control.

Bulgarian National Television (BNT) still remains a monopolist as the only tv company with nation-wide range. Two programs it broadcasts cover the territory of the entire country which makes it the most influential media. That is why politicians have great appetites concerning the BNT. The struggle for presentation of parties and their leaders has caused frequent changes of management of TV. The ruling political force, by means of its majority in the National Assembly has the right to nominate heads of national media and so far not a single political party has missed the opportunity to practise this right as soon as it won power.

The most scandalous of all was nomination of the current head of BNT by anti-communist coalition of the United Democratic Forces (ODS). Replacement of the management was contrary to the Law on national media adopted during the rule of former communists - the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Fifty six deputies of the opposition, representatives of some anti-communist parties inclusive, initiated a discussion at the Constitutional Court because of irregularity of the nomination, and its decision is expected by the end of September.

BNT is very attractive, among other, because of the lack of competition. For bureaucratic reasons, a few public competitions for distribution of channels to privately-owned TV stations failed, although candidates had offers of stable financial support and had prepared program projects.

Privately-owned tv channels with regional ranges have hard time winning an audience in competition with BNT, so that practically only three privately owned channels operate in the whole country - New Television and Seven Days in Sofia, and Bulgarian Rent TV. They rely on new faces in tv journalism and on non-traditional program conceptions in which politics is not at all prominent. They also rely on certain "soap operas" which have contributed to the increase of the number of their spectators. Their great problem, however, is the impossibility to compete with BNT on the market of advertisements. Even in the few programs of commentaries, journalists of these television stations are forced to serve politicians. If it refuses, a tv station risks to miss the opportunity to get a licence for a nation-wide channel for good.

Cable tv stations registered a serious boom, since they are financially ensured by income from monthly subscription fees. Regardless of the still unregulated rights and obligations, they have managed to impose themselves on the market, so that cable tv is nowadays present almost everywhere in the country. In the beginning they have also relied on broadcasting satellite programs and films, but now majority of them create their own program. Cable tv operators have turned to local advertising which successfully supplements their budget.

Privately owned radio-stations are by far more successful in the struggle with the monopoly of Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). They have all started as regional channels, but some have soon after created a network of such channels all around the country. The first attempts in this sense were made by Channel KOM, but the most successful is DARIK which is at the moment the first on the list according to the number of its listeners. DARIK covers a large part of the territory of Bulgaria and it is the biggest rival of the BNR. Some radio stations in different cities have created advertising unions and in this way they have become a serious competition to the BNR on the advertising market. On the other hand, the BNR is facing problems similar to those of national TV. The management is replaced every now and then, and this is always caused by political motives. Serious conflicts because of freedom of speech have broken out on the radio. Discontented by censorship during the Socialist rule of Zan Videnov, some leading journalists were forced to leave the Radio. That is when the trade union which calls itself Free Word was created and it is nowadays the most powerful trade union among the journalists of national media.

The press has experienced most tumultuous development in conditions of democracy and offered a true pluralism of opinions. Party press was a hit on the market immediately after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Gradually, however, party papers of BSP - Duma (once Rabotnicesko delo) and that of the Union of Democratic Forces - Demokracija, began losing readers and impact. Strongly politicized editions were replaced by privately-owned and independent papers. Press Group 168 Hours made a great breakthrough with its journals - 168 Hours and 24 Hours, which were the first independent among the political papers. Their editors chose the form of tabloids, objective and interesting information, simple and understandable language. These papers simultaneously gained in popularity and respectability on the advertising market. That is how Press Group also achieved financial success. The style of 24 Hours proved to be very attractive for Bulgarian circumstances and later other Bulgarian newspapers started to imitate it. The journal Trud, former paper of the trade union controlled by the state, was best in it. Some of the other serious journals such as Kontinent and Standard did not succeed in making a breakthrough on the market, so they also had to imitate the style of the journal called 24 Hours. The press has become the largest market of advertisements which enabled newspapers with large circulations to purchase their own printing works and be completely independent from the state. Healthy competition brought about improvement of editorial policy, printing and distribution.

Years 1995 and 1996 were especially hard for the press, when most of them operated with great losses. This forced a part of them to interrupt work or to seek new investors. German concern Westdeutsche Allgemaine Zeitung (WAZ) appeared on the Bulgarian market and became the owner of the largest media groups - Press Group 168 Hours and Trud. New owners applied the system used in Germany by this concern, which was tested in other countries too. They connected advertisements and distribution into one, and the journals remained independent in the sense of editorial policy and positions it took. The German firm, however, found itself in the line of fire of the Law on Protection of Competition because it controls about 70 per cent of the market of daily newspapers. In spite of that 168 Hours and Trud remained under the umbrella of the German concern.

Regardless of its independence, privately owned journals were also exposed to political pressure. The editor-in-chief of the daily 24 Hours, Valeri Najdenov, was removed from office because of his sharp opposition to the government of Zan Videnov. The cabinet applied financial methods of exerting pressure on the owner of the journal, Petaj Blaskov. He was faced with the dilemma - either to remove Najdenov or to pay the debts of the Press Group to the first privately-owned bank which was also in financial difficulties. In the similar manner the current government of Ivan Kostov forced Petaj Blaskov through WAZ to give up the share in the Press Group 168 Hours and submit his resignation. Valeri Najdanov resumed the post of the editor-in-chief of 24 Hours.

AIM SOFIJA

GEORGI FILIPOV