Media bias

The media environment in Bulgaria remains troubled by concerns regarding the independence of the press and the influence of political and economic forces. The European Commission's annual rule of law report for 2023, released on July 24, highlights ongoing issues in these areas.

Romania's press is in the highest risk category regarding freedom of expression, according to the newest report on the Rule of Law in the EU released on Wednesday by the European Commission.

The Media Pluralism Monitor ranks EU member states into five risk levels: Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovenia are considered highest-risk countries.

Surely the pace of reforms in Bulgaria is not as fast as we would like. This is what the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice Věra Jourová said in an interview with Mediapool. She stresses that Bulgaria has built all the necessary institutions to fight corruption, but the Bulgarian citizens and the EC are still waiting to see the results.

Ljubljana – A survey of ten major news portals in Slovenia in 2020 has shown that the majority of news, except on the portal Nova24TV.si, is unbiased. Among articles that were flagged as biased, those that were critical of the government far outnumbered pro-government reporting.

Europeans with populist views believe less in the media than other citizens and are much more critical of media coverage on key topics such as immigration, the economy and crime. This has found a study by the Phu Research Center, conducted among 16,000 people in 8 West European countries quoted by the Guardian.

Freedom of both traditional and online media outlets in Bulgaria is limited to a certain extent due to unclear media ownership, partisan reporting and dependence of media on the state, a report issued by German foundation for liberal politics Friedrich Naumann Foundation shows.

The media privatization process in Serbia finished on Monday when the last media outlet that was announced for sale signed the contract with a buyer.

However, journalists associations claim the Serbian media will not be any freer as a result of the sales.

The lack of transparency of media ownership and the decreasing media pluralism are among the main factors contributing to Bulgaria's declining media freedom.

This was one of the most common opinions expressed by participants at a discussion entitled "The risks to freedom of expression".

A report adopted by the Council of Europe (CoE) on June 24 says media transparency should be promoted, stressing the importance of freedom of expression and media pluralism for a functioning democracy.

"Most media not contributing to informing citizens"

BELGRADE -- Most media content does not serve to "raise the level of general informedness of the Serbian citizens," Miroslav Milicevic said on Wednesday.

The Anti-Corruption Council vice president was addressing a session of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information,