Bulgaria

[BG] Declaration of the Media Regulatory Body Regarding the Coverage of Refugees Issue in the National Electronic Mass Media

IRIS 2014-1:1/11

Rayna Nikolova

New Bulgarian University

At its regular meeting on 5 November 2013, the Council for Electronic Media (CEM) have discussed the results of its focused monitoring of the electronic mass media coverage of the reception of refugees in the country. In general, there is timely, versatile and professional provision of information with regard to the refugees issue for the benefit of the audience; however isolated cases of hate speech and of the use of illegal and morally questionable qualifications have been detected such as the use of the words “cannibals”, “mob”, “despicable primates”, etc.

Besides undertaking all the necessary actions according to its competences and relying on Recommendation No R (97) 20 on “hate speech” adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, on this occasion CEM points out that the freedom of expression does not include any forms of expression which incite racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance. In practice that means that any opinion may be disclosed in public, but it should not be expressed in a manner that may affect another’s dignity or ethnic or religious belonging.

CEM is of the position that such hate speech is the eventual outcome not of the mass media representatives but of their interlocutors, who are often politicians, however the legal liability rests with the media itself and the television presenters and reporters are under the obligation to take all the necessary steps in order to protect the affected persons (see IRIS 2013-9/5). Another issue of importance is that the presenters in some of the mass media are simultaneously also politicians. This is a sign of a specific conflict of interest case and opens an opportunity for broad public debate.