Bulgaria

[BG] Election of CEM Members in Accordance with the National Assembly’s Quota

IRIS 2013-8:1/11

Rayna Nikolova

New Bulgarian University

The rotation of the composition of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), the Bulgarian broadcasting regulatory authority, in accordance with the quota of the National Assembly’s members has been delayed for a year. The upcoming need to elect the General Director of the public television broadcaster has made a new composition of the CEM urgently necessary.

On 27 June 2013, the National Assembly adopted the Rules of Procedure for the nomination of candidates, submission of documents, hearings of the candidates and election of a member of the CEM in accordance with the National Assembly’s quota. According to the procedure there are several stages:

1. Nomination of candidates and submission of documents of the candidates to become a member of the Council for Electronic Media on the National Assembly’s quota,

2. Public disclosure of the documents,

3. Hearings with the nominated candidates with regard to their vision about their work in the Council,

4. Election of the member.

It is the first time that the National Assembly has established such a transparent and competitive procedure. It was established in the aftermath of the scandalous nomination of the member of the National Assembly Mr Delyan Peevsky as Chairman of the State Agency for National security, which has provoked spontaneous and numerous civil protests in the capital city, Sofia.

Two nominations were publicly revealed on the National Assembly’s website, in particular that of the former member of the National Assembly from the Bulgarian Socialist Party Mr Ivo Atanassov and that of the well-known media expert Mr Radomir Tcholakov.

On 12 July 2013, the Culture and Media Committee, which is one of the Standing Committees of the National Assembly, held a public hearing with the participation of members of the National Assembly and representatives of non-governmental organisations that supported certain candidates. in addition, journalists took part in this hearing.

On 17 July 2013, following plenary debates, the National Assembly elected Mr. Ivo Atanassov as the member of the Council for Electronic Media on the basis of Article 86 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and Articles 24 and 29 (1) of the Radio and Television Act.