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Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria” 1 REPORT Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria Part One. News Websites and Print Media: 2013 – 2016 Quantitative Research Human and Social Studies Foundation – Sofia, 2017 "Support for the Grantee Human and Social Studies Foundation – Sofia (HSSF) is provided by the America for Bulgaria Foundation. The statements and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the Grantee HSSF –- SofiaSofia andand dodo notnot necessarilynecessarily reflectreflect thethe viewsviews of the America for Bulgaria Foundation or its affiliates".affiliates." HUMAN AND SOCIAL STUDIES FOUNDATION – SOFIA, 2017 TEAM: Dimitar Vatsov (Head) Senior Researchers: Albena Hranova Boriana Dimitrova Boyan Znepolski Deyan Kiuranov Konstantin Pavlov Martin Kanoushev Milena Iakimova Tom Junes Tsvetozar Tomov Vanya Serafimova (Administrative Manager) Maria Martinova (Coordinator) Petya Chalakova (Coordinator) "Support for the Grantee Human and Social Studies Foundation – Sofia (HSSF) is provided by the America for Bulgaria Foundation. The statements and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the Grantee HSSF – Sofia and do not necessarily reflect the views of the America for Bulgaria Foundation or its affiliates." REPORT on the Study on “Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria” 1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA ............................................................................................................... 4 1. POPULISM AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA: KEY CONCEPTS............................. 4 2. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY ON ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA IN BULGARIA ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 3. METHODOLOGY AND TOOLKIT ....................................................................................................... 12 I. CHAPTER I ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 MAIN TALKING POINTS OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA IN BULGARIA (SYNTATICO-SEMANTIC ANATOMY OF PROPAGANDA LANGUAGE) ......................................... 18 I.1 “THE DECLINE OF EUROPE” .......................................................................................................... 18 I.2 “THE RISE OF RUSSIA” ..................................................................................................................... 19 I.3 “BULGARIA’S VENAL ELITES” ....................................................................................................... 19 I.4 “THE US/NATO AS GLOBAL HEGEMON/PUPPET-MASTER” .......................................... 20 II. CHAPTER II .................................................................................................................................................... 21 EMERGENCE AND DISSEMINATION OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA LANGUAGE IN BULGARIAN NEWS WEBSITES AND BLOGS: 1 JANUARY 2013 – 31 DECEMBER 2016 21 II.1 “THE DECLINE OF EUROPE” .......................................................................................................... 22 II.2 “THE RISE OF RUSSIA” ..................................................................................................................... 26 II.2.1 RUSSIA’S INCREASED POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL MIGHT .................................... 29 II.2.3 RUSSIA’S ENEMIES .................................................................................................................... 31 II.2.4 THE POWER OF RUSSIAN WEAPONS................................................................................ 32 II.2.5 CRIMEA AND UKRAINE ........................................................................................................... 34 II.2.6 THE SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA .................................................................................... 35 II.3 “BULGARIA’S VENAL ELITES: DISCREDITING CIVIL SOCIETY” .................................... 43 II.4 “THE US/NATO AS GLOBAL HEGEMON/PUPPET-MASTER” .......................................... 49 II.5 COUNTER-PROPAGANDA IN BULGARIA .................................................................................. 57 COMMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................. 59 REPORT on the Study on “Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria” 2 III. CHAPTER III............................................................................................................................................... 61 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PRESS-CLIPPING RESULTS ................................................... 61 III.1 GENERAL PICTURE OF BULGARIA AND THE WORLD IN THE PROPAGANDA PRESS .................................................................................................................................................................... 61 III.2 SIGNED AND ANONYMOUS ARTICLES ON THE MAIN TOPICS ...................................... 65 III.3 REVIEW OF THE MEDIA OUTLETS BY TOPIC ........................................................................ 68 III.3.1 POGLED-INFO............................................................................................................................... 71 III.3.2 GLASOVE......................................................................................................................................... 73 III.3.3 WEEKEND ...................................................................................................................................... 75 III.3.4 A-SPECTO ....................................................................................................................................... 76 III.4 AUTHORIAL VOICES: COUNTING AND DISSEMINATION OF RUSSOPHILIA ........... 79 III.5 WHO ARE THE BAD GUYS WHEN EVERYTHING IS BAD? ................................................ 80 III.6 ARCH-VILLAINS (TOP ANTAGONISTS)..................................................................................... 82 III.7 PROTAGONISTS ................................................................................................................................... 89 REPORT on the Study on “Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria” 3 INTRODUCTION ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA 1. POPULISM AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC PROPAGANDA: KEY CONCEPTS Over the last ten years or so, the world has witnessed the emergence of a common “populist front” that is opposed to the values and institutions of liberal democracy which seemed to have no alternative for almost two decades.1 A repertoire of clichés has also emerged – a primitive propaganda language used by different actors to criticize and undermine: The global international order based on the regulative idea of human rights (an order that prioritizes human rights over national sovereignty, while populism inverts the relationship between the two, denouncing human rights as a “smokescreen” that serves to secure the “hegemony of the West” and to promote private and corporate interests through “double standards”); To undermine, on the geopolitical plane, also the alleged “hegemony of the West” – most often, of the US as global political and economic leader, of NATO as a military alliance, and of the EU as a supranational political union – all of them identified as “villains” because of their ability to “impose” the international legal order and values of liberal democracy; To undermine political and economic elites at the global and national levels – contesting the “representativeness” of the elites vis-à-vis the people as well as “meritocracy” as their legitimating principle;2 and hence: Propaganda formulas are used to undermine the institutions of representative democracy (political parties, stigmatized as “oligarchic structures” or “corporations”), civil society in the individual nation-states (the NGO sector and 1 The populist front is a “historico-discursive formation” in the sense of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, London and New York: Verso, 1985). See the analyses by Chantal Mouffe (“The populist moment”, Open Democracy, 21 November 2016 <https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/chantal-mouffe/populist-moment>), and Nancy Fraser (“The End of Progressive Neoliberalism”, Dissent, 2 January 2017 <https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/progressive-neoliberalism-reactionary-populism-nancy- fraser>). 2 See Ivan Krastev, “The Rise and Fall of European Meritocracy”, The New York Times, 17 January 2017 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/the-rise-and-fall-of-european-meritocracy.html?_r=0>. REPORT on the Study on “Anti-Democratic Propaganda in Bulgaria” 4 civic movements, stigmatized as “professional protesters” and “foreign agents”), and liberalism as a cultural and political model of behavior (“tolerasty”). Also under attack is “political correctness” understood both as general support of the values of liberal democracy and as a civilized model of linguistic behavior. Insofar as the populist front undermines the basic principles and institutions of liberal democracy listed above, we define it as anti-democratic and anti-liberal. Insofar as the various populist formulas fall in sync with each other, turning into a primitive subversive language used by different actors in different contexts
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