REPORT Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and Foundation Media Democracy MEDIA MONITORING LABORATORY February 2016 THE DILEMMA OF THE MEDIA: JOURNALISM OR PROPAGANDA www.fmd.bg www.kas.de The Foundation Media Democracy (FMD) • An apathetic campaign for the local and the Media Program South East Europe elections which were held in October, where of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) media proved themselves to care more present their joint annual report on the about how they could profit from political state of the Bulgarian media environment advertising funds, allocated by the parties, in 2015. This study summarises the trends than about providing a stage for genuine in the coverage of socio-political debates among participants in the election developments in the country. race. The analyses in the report are conducted by • Examples of unprecedented attacks the research team of the Media Monitoring against the Council for Electronic Media Laboratory of FMD: Nikoleta Daskalova, (SEM) in the context of political strife. Media Gergana Kutseva, Eli Aleksandrova, Vladimir regulation was seriously threatened. At the Kisimdarov, Lilia Lateva, Marina Kirova, same time important debates and long- Ph.D., Silvia Petrova, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. needed amendments to the media Todor Todorov, as well as by the guest legislation were not initiated. experts Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Prof. Snezhana Popova and Prof. Totka Monova. In light of the above, the main conclusions The team was led by Assoc. Prof. Orlin by areas of monitoring can be summarised, Spasov. A part of the monitoring is based as follows: on quantitative and qualitative data, prepared by Market Links Agency for the NATIONAL TELEVISIONS, DAILY joint analysis of FMD and KAS. NEWSPAPERS, NEWS WEBSITES (DATA PROVIDED BY MARKET The monitored period was characterised by LINKS) some important developments, including: In 2015 Prime Minister Boyko Borisov • Increased polarisation in society because maintained his extremely massive media of instability in domestic policy, as well as in presence, including in terms of expressing foreign policy. Use of hate speech in the opinion on the main political topics in the media intensified, which opened the door country. His media coverage increased in for a widespread voicing of extremist views, comparison to 2014 and in 2015 he was close to racism and xenophobia, and further mentioned in 23 percent of all monitored radicalised the public space. programmes and publications. In comparison, President Rosen Plevneliev, • The still ongoing restructuring in the who is ranked second, was only present in 7 media sector as a result of the bankruptcy percent of the monitored media, i.e. more of Corporate Commercial Bank in 2014. The than three times less than Boyko Borisov connection of many media with the bank led (the results are based on monitoring of the to ownership transformations in 2015. The Bulgarian National Television, bTV, Nova financial dependency of some media Television, the Trud and Telegraph increased, important publications were newspapers, in 2015). discontinued. 2 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung The politicians with positive media ratings insufficient. The unification of content was during the year were Borisov (3.1) and strengthened up by the imposed MEDIA MONITORING Rosen Plevneliev (1.9). Negative media commercial model, counting on reality LABORATORY ratings were registered for Mihail Mikov shows, competitions, games, lifestyle (-1.5), Lyutvi Mestan (-1.6), Radan Kanev discussions, etc. TV7 continued to February 2016 (-4.3), Volen Siderov (-8.6) (the data are experience the negative effects of the based on monitoring of the Bulgarian situation which arose after the bankruptcy www.fmd.bg National Television, bTV, Nova Television, of Corporate Commercial Bank. In April, the www.kas.de the Trud, Telegraph and 24 Chasa TV station was dangerously close to stop newspapers, the electronic publications broadcasting after the National Revenue BLITZ, Dnevnik and OFFNews, for the Agency distrained some of its assets. The period April - December 2015). Police and a private judicial enforcer broke into the TV network’s building, in order to Compared to 2014, the Borisov 2nd seize the main TV server as part of the government was a lot more successful in mortgaged property. The police raid stirred attracting media's attention in 2015. In public discontent and a team of journalists connection with the elections, the local found itself in a position of long-term government achieved a substantial increase insecurity. in media coverage as well. The Ministry of Interior was also more frequently present in RADIO the media in 2015. All major political parties, with the exception of the coalition In 2015 the long-standing tendency for of the nationalist National Front for the unification of the broadcast content by radio Salvation of Bulgaria and Bulgarian National stations became even more pronounced. At Movement (NFSB-VMRO), registered a the same time major television groups significant drop in their mass media expanded their activity into radio presence. broadcasting by launching new radio stations, used by them to broadcast their The eminent topic of refugees was neutrally television programmes. The development of presented in every monitored media, with the local radio channels remained stagnant. the exception of the news website BLITZ, Over the course of the year, tension arose where it was rather negative. In the between radio companies concerning the monitored media the most positive attitude audience measurement. Two audience towards refugees was expressed by Rosen measurement agencies entered the market Plevneliev. The most negative and critical and considerable differences between the attitude was expressed by the Bulgarian data provided by them were registered. The Orthodox Church, by representatives of the radio broadcasting sector was split in two Police and by the Ministry of Interior as an camps, each with preferences for one or the institution. However, Minister of Interior other agency. Rumyana Bachvarova expressed a neutral and positive attitude. Prime Minister Borisov During the election campaign the radio showed a balanced attitude towards the stations were frequently approached by refugee topic, where his critical comments political forces for broadcasting their on one hand equalled the positive and election addresses. The campaign showed a neutral attitude on the other. new phenomenon – agreements for campaign coverage between the political TELEVISION parties and some music radio stations. In 2015 the television channels were a In general, some of the most serious stage for scandals and continued political actions in the media space were related to and corporate pressure. Some major events developments in the Bulgarian National received little attention. Serious coverage of Radio. The BNR journalists initiated a fields such as culture and business and protest against the salary cuts resulting investigative journalism remained from the requirement for a ten percent 3 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung decrease in payroll costs. Some journalists, examples included information launched in unsatisfied with the management of the light of the Paris events that “Arabs had MEDIA MONITORING radio station, demanded early termination broken into” New Bulgarian University, LABORATORY of the contract of the CEO. New tension shouting “Allahu Akbar”; the made-up arose at the end of the year, when, “mammoth” fine for the bTV news presenter February 2016 following a penalty imposed by the Council Viktoria Petrova, allegedly imposed by the for Electronic Media for an established EMC on account of the “offensive” www.fmd.bg administrative offense, the Board of expression “Gypsy summer” used by her; www.kas.de Directors of the Bulgarian National Radio the shocking information about the invasion adopted a resolution to discontinue the of American tanks into a kindergarten in “Deconstruction” broadcast. This situation Sungurlare, where soldiers had actually led to fierce debates on topics such as been sent to repair the playground; or the defining pluralism and the violation thereof, false press release that the Bulgaria for replacing critical journalism by propaganda, Citizens Movement was leaving the the regulation of public media. It was also governing coalition, which managed to used to benefit ad hoc political goals. create serious political chaos in just a couple of minutes after the “news” had been NATIONAL PRESS circulated by several media without further verification. In 2015 the press was highly ideologised. Two discourses emerged based on the The topic of asylum-seeking migrants and geopolitical situation on the East-West axis. the refugee crisis was among the hottest Russophilic, pro-European, pro-American ones worldwide. However, Bulgarian media media orientations became prominent. failed in their coverage of it and in Neutrality was scarce and almost all facts ‒ presenting balanced information. The from purely political ones to cultural reasons include sensationalism, populist artefacts ‒ were rendered through the language and hate speech, violation of respective ideological platform. Moreover, some fundamental ethical principles and the the press kept demonstrating its support of overall lack of resources and certain corporate or oligarchic circles. The professionalism. emotional type of argumentation became clearly dominant. Invasion of personal LIFESTYLE MEDIA space often went beyond what was acceptable. The interview remained one of One of the most pronounced