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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...

Through its Decision No 8 of 11 October 2013 in constitutional case No 6 of 2013 the Constitutional court of the Republic of Bulgaria has declared that Article 26, point 3 and Article 59 (2), point 3 of the Radio and Television Act are unconstitutional and incompatible with the international treaties to which Bulgaria is a party. The proceedings were instituted on 16 January 2013 on an initiative from 57 Members of the 41st National Assembly (i.e. the previous composition of the National Assembly). In the petition instituting proceedings it is alleged that the contested dispositions of Article...

On 12 September 2013, the National Assembly adopted two decisions for information purposes regarding two reports of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), which cover the period from 1 January 2012 to 30 June 2012 and the period from 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2012 respectively. The CEM is obliged under the provisions of Article 86(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and Article 39(1) of the Radio and Television Act to submit to the National Assembly a report on its activity for the first half of each current year not later than 31 October in the same year and for the second half...

On 30 September 2013, the analogue broadcasting of television signals was terminated in Bulgaria. The simultaneous emission of analogue and digital signals, which has lasted for a six months period, has thus been brought to an end. A network has been established for the broadcasting of public television programme services - BNT1, BNT2 and BNT HD -, which reaches 96.2 % of the country’s population. Another two networks have been established for the broadcasting of the commercial television programme services. The first of these networks, which reaches 96.2 % of the country’s population, is used...

On 13 August 2013, the Council for Electronic Media (hereinafter CEM) adopted a Declaration on the basis of Article 32(2) of the Radio and Television Act (RTA). In this Declaration, the Members of the CEM request the Bulgarian journalists community to dissociate themselves from the expression of hostile statements and hate speech in accordance with Bulgarian media law. The Declaration goes beyond the issue of how journalists report in their own wording and focusses on the way Bulgarian media report about statements of third persons that could be considered hate speech. The CEM also addresses electronic...