Bulgaria

Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners wrote to Bulgarian leaders to condemn the recent police violence and intimidation against journalists reporting on anti-government protests.

Angelov is currently in hospital recovering from stab wounds, a broken leg, and facial bruising. The Interior Ministry chief secretary has informed media that the assault was related to the journalist’s investigative work.

Marinova is the third journalist to be murdered in the EU in the last 12 months. IPI has called on Bulgarian authorities to take all necessary precautions to protect the safety of journalists working in the country.

Bulgarian journalists covering the financial beat can breathe freely as the most controversial parts of the so-called “bank censorship” amendment to the criminal code have been removed by the legal committee of the national assembly.

Bulgarian journalist Genka Shikerova’s car was set on fire on 16 September in what is suspected to have been arson. Shikerova told viewers of her show on Tuesday morning that the vehicle was parked in front in Sofia when it was set ablaze and that the vehicle was destroyed.

The violent action by riot police came after 40 days of peaceful protests outside the parliament in response to a string of controversial appointments by the new government and wider concerns about corruption.

A recent case in Bulgaria saw a fan of the football club CSKA allegedly attack Anton Toni Chalakov, a photographer with the daily newspaper Standart, breaking Chalakov’s nose.

Bulgaria’s state-owned TV broadcaster, BNT was forcibly invaded by the leader and members of the far-right party Ataka, who occupied the station for several hours on 27 June 2013. The operation followed claims by Ataka, which supports the ruling party in parliament, of media “bias” against it.

Bulgaria’s media grants over-exposure to those in power, and the industry seems to quickly adapt to a new political situation, says Georgi Kantchev. The country has measures put in place to distinguish editorial content from political advertisements for broadcast media, but not for the press.

Bulgarian journalist Spas Spasov has been threatened by the owners of several companies involved in a construction project that he investigated.

Lidia Pavlova, who reports on organised crime in southwest Bulgaria, said her car was set on fire — for the second time — in the town of Dupnitsa.

IPI Condemns Bomb Attacks on Nigeria Newspapers Explosions at Two Newspaper Buildings [1] People stand at the entrance to the destroyed building of This Day newspaper after a bomb blast in its premises in Abuja April 26, 2012. The office of Nigeria’s This Day newspaper in the northern city of Kaduna was bombed on Thursday, […]

An explosive device was detonated underneath a car belonging to Sasho Dikov, a sports journalist and political commentator who has been critical of the government.

Mirolyuba Benatova has come under a barrage of verbal abuse and has been bombarded with ethnic and political insults on Facebook after reporting on ethnic violence in the village of Katunitsa.