April 18 (SeeNews) - Media freedom in Bulgaria remained lower than in any other member state of the EU or any country in Southeast Europe (SEE), according to data published by non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders on Thursday.
"One might have expected an improvement in press freedom in 2018 because Bulgaria held the European Council’s rotating presidency during the first half of the year but instead the opposite occurred. 2018 saw TV journalist Viktoria Marinova’s murder in October and a blatant attempt by the authorities to cover up the circumstances by botching the investigation," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index report.
Bulgaria retained its 111th place among the 180 countries present in the ranking, whereas its score worsened slightly compared to the previous edition of the report.
Corruption and collusion between media, politicians and oligarchs is widespread in Bulgaria, which is most notably embodied by local member of parliament Delyan Peevski, who ostensibly owns two newspapers (Telegraph and Monitor), a TV channel (Kanal 3), news websites and a big chunk of print media distribution.
Other major issues remain non-transparent allocation of EU funding to media outlets, judicial harassment of independent media, and a rising number of threats against reporters in recent months.