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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....

On 11 April 2013, the Administrative Court in Sofia City annulled a decision of the Sofia District Court and thereby confirmed a fine imposed by the Bulgarian regulatory authority Council for Electronic Media (CEM). The CEM had imposed a sanction of BGN 15,000 (approximately EUR 7,500) on the media service provider "BTV Media Group". On 20 February 2012, the TV programme "The Slavi's Show" was broadcast as a repeat at lunch time between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm. As regards this repeat, CEM found that there had been a violation of Article 17(2) of the Radio and Television Act (RTA) and No. 27 of CEM’s...

The Central Election Commission (CEC) in its decision of 12 May 2013 found that the rerun of a political interview within the last 24 hours prior to the election day violates Art. 133 paragraph 6 of the Bulgarian Election Code. According to the law, the so-called day of reflection prohibits political campaigning throughout the day prior to the election and the election day itself. The proceedings of the CEC were initiated on 11 May 2013, when the political party “Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria” (GERB) lodged a complaint with the CEC regarding violations of the Election Code. The...

On 12 December 2012, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria vetoed a bill amending the Investment Encouragement Act (IEA). This bill provided a.o. that any investment into objects of intellectual property according to the Bulgarian Copyright Act could be awarded public aid if the budget foresees an expenditure of more than BGN 400,000 (approximately EUR 200,000) in Bulgaria. As a result of the presidential veto, the bill was rejected by the Bulgarian Parliament with the argument that the criteria for encouraging investment in intellectual property had to be in conformity with the not yet adopted...

Several amendments have been made during the months of March and April 2013 to different acts pertaining to the Bulgarian Media Law. An amendment and a supplement to the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) introduced a new Art. 231 (published on 15 March 2013 in the "Official Gazette", issue 27). The purpose of this provision is the protection of the rights of media consumers, especially in the case of commercial disputes between television broadcasters and network operators. Therefore, Art. 231 envisages that the contract between the consumer and the network operator has to outline a detailed...