NEWS

Rumen Radev: Society May Pay a High Price if the Media Are not Objective and Are Perceived Mainly as a Source of Propaganda

The public media bear the responsibility before the citizens to ensure that professional standards in journalism are met and that the focus is on socially-important topics in a world of an increasingly greater concentration of media and finances. This was the common stance shared by Head of State Rumen Radev and Noel Curran, Director General of the European Broadcasting Union, who met at 2 Dondukov street today. The meeting was attended by Alexander Velev, Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio and Konstantin Kamenarov, Director General of the Bulgarian National Television. Noel Curran is visiting Bulgaria to take part in the meeting of the public radio and television media from Southeastern Europe.

It is essential that every civil society has free access to reliable and topical information. The public may pay a very high price if the media lack pluralism and there is no public trust in their objectivity and they are mainly perceived as a source of propaganda and advertisement, it was highlighted at the meeting. Only the public media can be an alternative to the electronic media and editions that have adopted their own approach to covering events on the basis of corporative or political affiliation, Noel Curran said.

The inadequate funding that does not allow them to be competitive on the labor market, nor make investments in modern technologies was identified as the major challenge the public media are facing. President Radev further said that media legislation in Bulgaria should be improved so that the transparency of media ownership and their funding can be increased and also the criteria for forming the subsidies for public media can be specified.