Bulgaria

[BG] Agreement on Media Ethics Code

IRIS 2005-1:1/15

Dinko Kanchev

Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights

At the end of November 2004, representatives of authoritative Bulgarian media (including major daily newspapers, national and local broadcasters, the Bulgarian Publishers' Union, the Bulgarian Media Coalition, and the Association of Bulgarian Radio and TV Operators) signed an agreement on the Code of Ethics of the Bulgarian Media. The President Mr. Georgi Parvanov, Speaker of Parliament Mr. Ognyan Gerdjikov and Prime Minister Mr. Simeon Sakskoburggotski attended the signing ceremony. The Code stipulates that the media are aware of their rights and that they also recognize their responsibility to respect the rights of others and to carry out the appropriate duties, as follows:

- The media declare that freedom of expression, free access to information, respect for personal dignity and safety of personal life shall be the cornerstones of their activities;

- The media are entitled to do their work free from any censorship;

- The media admit that, in order to cherish their rights, they also have the duty to accept their responsibilities;

- The media proclaim that their main objective is to promote the right of the public to receive and disseminate information. The media shall do their best to facilitate the realization of this right, so that citizens can be effectively encouraged to become active participants in public life in an environment of transparent democracy.

- The media declare that their basic obligation shall be to gather correct information and to present it to civil society and at the same time to respect the honour and dignity of citizens;

- Mutual respect and fair competition shall be the basic features of relations between the media;

- The media agree that only issues of acknowledged public interest may justify violations of this Code. All these basic issues of the Code are specified in a number of detailed regulations. The Code has no legal force and is conceived only as a moral regulator. Nonetheless, its importance for Bulgarian civil society and for inter-media relations is beginning to be recognized. A dream all the serious media in Bulgaria had had for almost a decade has come true at last.