Bulgaria: Assoc. Prof. Ivo Indzhov Shares His Thoughts about Outgoing Year 2020

At the end of the year Dnevnik.bg asked philosophers, political scientists, sociologists and observers to assess political 2020 and make predictions for 2021. The outgoing year has already been described by Time Magazine as the most horrible for our contemporaries. Was it possible to predict 12 months ago? Has anyone been able to predict the political crisis? Read how the 2020 is summed-up in the days leading up to the New Year. Today we offer you the answers of Assoc. Prof. Ivo Indzhov about the outgoing 2020.

 Has any of your expectations for 2020 come true? What of them has proved wrong?

 - I'm not surprised that politicians continued to take over the media. At the end of GERB's third term, the concentration of ownership in the media, their un-transparent funding, as well as the abuse of mass media power are increasingly damaging to democracy and the public interest.

The group of the private "NOVA TV" bought by the Domuschievi brothers-businessmen less than two years ago has become an outspoken pro-government machine. Recently, Channel 3 associated with Peevski joined this team, which also comprises the largest online group in Bulgaria.

It is interesting to see nowwhat exactly isthe scheme behind the upcoming sale of the megastructure to the owner of BTC - is it more political or rather commercial. Neither am I surprised by the imposition of pseudo-pluralism with a clear domination of the pro-government policy in public BNT.

And since I started with the media, I will go on with them. After a show of journalistic solidarity during the campaign for the local elections in 2019, I expected the guild to consolidate at least in the face of blatant threats and...