Bulgaria MPs Back Media Law Changes Pushed by Mogul

With 92 votes in favour, 12 against and 28 abstentions, lawmakers in Bulgaria's parliament on Wednesday, on a first reading,voted in favour of amendments to the Law for the Compulsory Depositing of Print Media.

MPs now have four weeks to potentially amend the proposal, ahead of the second reading, after which the law would be officially amended.

If finally passed, the changes will oblige media to declare any sources of financing other than those deriving from ordinary commercial activities - such as grants, donations and other funds that some media receive from abroad.

As BIRN previously reported, some experts fear the amendments will put undue pressure on media that rely on foreign grants and donations to maintain their editorial independence.

Colloquially known as "Delyan Peevski's media law", the amendments were proposed in February by the controversial politician and media mogul from the mainly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF.

Peevski, the former head of Bulgaria's main intelligence agency, owns the New Bulgarian Media Group which has six newspapers and controls nearly 80 per cent of print media distribution.

The votes in favour of the amendments came from the ruling GERB-United Patriots coalition and from the MRF. Members of the Socialist Party opposition abstained or voted against the amendments.

"If we do not introduce those changes to the print media law, we are essentially producers of fake news," an MRF MP, Yordan Tsonev, told parliament at the start of the debate. He co-introduced the amendments with Peevski in February.

It should be clear who owns every media outlet, who distributes them and how are they financed, he said.

"Financing of media outlets is crucial. It shapes...