Eight SEENPM members, together with the umbrella organization, are implementing the South-East European Partnership for Media Development Project, which supports the development of independent and accountable media in the Western Balkans (December 2013 – November 2017)

The Center for Independent Journalism (Romania) is the international coordinator of this project, the coordinator for Bulgaria is Media Development Center.

The project aims to improve the ability of media organisations to address working conditions and education level of journalists, broaden their knowledge and skills, as well as to improve their attitude with respect to advocacy and media literacy. The project also aims to inform and generate educated public debates on freedom of expression in general, and media freedom in particular, to broaden the stakeholders’ and civic support for media sector reform processes.

57 Members of Parliament (from the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms) asked the Constitutional Court of Republic of Bulgaria to “declare unconstitutional and inconsistent with universally recognized norms of international law and international treaties to which Bulgaria is a country of art. 26, section 3 and Art. 59 ac. 2, Section 3 of the Law on Radio and Television (SG. 138/24.11.1998, last. Amend. No 38/18.05.2012). ” In article. 26, Section 3 of the Law on Radio and Television, says that members of the Council for Electronic Media shall not be people, who were “employees and collaborators of the former State Security.” Similar is the text of Art. 59, para. 2, item 3, which states that “cannot be members of the board of Bulgarian National Radio and respectively of Bulgarian National Television, people, who have been employees and collaborators of the former State Security.”

MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movements for Rights and Freedoms see discrimination in these texts and insist they be abolished. Their motives are questionable. The case is not only legal, it is above all moral! Are we going to allow today former State Security agents to control public media and thus to influence public opinion? The Constitutional Court will rule after April 25, 2013. Now is the time to have our say on this!

VOTE HERE IF YOU ARE AGAINST FORMER STATE AGENTS to become members of the Council for Electronic Media and the board of Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National Television!

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

The Summer School for Journalists and Media Practitioners

Florence, Italy, 13-17 May 2013

The Summer School is organised by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), co-funded by the European Union, at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute.