Threats made by Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov and by a ruling-party MP to a TV host for asking "too many questions"
angered local media on October 6. The threats that the host could lose his job were the most significant and blatant attempts by politicians to put pressure on journalists in the country in recent years.
The questions concerned the procurement of new fighter jets, already a highly controversial issue in Bulgaria. The parliament had voted the previous day to restart the process from scratch, even though Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen fighters had provisionally been selected. The vote followed a fiery debate in which ruling party MPs implied President Rumen Radev had accepted a bribe in return for making the selection.
On October 6, during Nova TV’s morning show, Viktor Ivanov, the host of the “Hello Bulgaria” show, interviewed Anton Todorov, an MP from the ruling centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, on the parliament’s decision regarding the purchase of new fighter jets.
"Is this selection a product of a gang that wants to take the order for [BGN]1.5bn?" Ivanov asked Todorov regarding the procedure for the fighter jets.
“You are using very strong words and they might cost you your bread. They already cost the bread of your colleague – she had taken a certain direction, and as far as I can see, her chair is missing now," Todorov replied.
In September, Ivanov’s long-time co-host Anna Tsolova unexpectedly resigned from “Hello, Bulgaria”, claiming that she was about to launch her own lifestyle show. However, there was speculation among Bulgarian journalists that Tsolova had been forced to quit due to her journalistic work. In the week before her resignation, she had focused on the latest attempts at judicial reform in the country.
After threatening Ivanov that his questions might cost him his job, Todorov was angered even more by another question and responded that “… [F]or such a question, if I was chief of Nova, would fire [people]”.
Ivanov’s next guest, Simeonov, also tried to put pressure on the journalist, angered by his questions regarding a recent scandal involving GERB MP Delyan Dobrev whose relatives have been appointed to key positions in the town of Haskovo. Dobrev has resigned, but GERB and its coalition partner – Simenov’s United Patriots – unanimously stood behind him and his resignation was not accepted by the parliament.
“Don’t you have relatives? Don’t they work somewhere? Where do they work? They have used the contacts of Nova TV’s host? That’s exactly what has happened, be sure! Tomorrow, if I am malicious, I will develop a Viktorgate,” Simeonov said.
He also decided to comment on the way Ivanov himself had been appointed, claiming that he was hired on a temporary contract which has been extended and reminding him that his colleague was not a co-host anymore.
Media freedom in Bulgaria has been assessed as very poor by many institutions, as well as highly dependent on the interests of businessmen and politicians. In April, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its latest World Press Freedom Index. While Bulgaria moved up on the ranking, it remained the lowest ranked EU country at 109th position. This was attributed by RSF to “an environment dominated by corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs”.
Even so, the comments from the two politicians were extreme by Bulgarian standards, and angered local journalists. Several organisations have issued statements condemning the threats.
The Bulgarian section of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) called on local media to boycott politicians who have threatened journalists and demonstrated disrespect for freedom of speech. The association also said that the behavior of the two politicians was a crude attempt at censorship, which also revealed the contemptuous attitude of the government towards the media.
“The words of Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Simeonov and GERB MP Anton Todorov are essentially an attempt at censorship, as they clearly show that the "inconvenient" questions to those in power are not only unwanted but will also lead to action against the journalist who would ask them,” the AEJ said in a statement.
The organisation added that these attacks are happening at a time when another former journalist and current politician loyal to the ruling party – Nikolai Barekov – has initiated a series of attacks against journalists. One of those attacked was Tsolova.
“This shows that the pressure on the media is not an isolated phenomenon, but an everyday practice of the political class, which obviously aims one thing – the complete silencing of the critical voices,” AEJ added.
Another NGO, the Centre for Development of Media (CDM), called for respect for the freedom of speech in Bulgaria and called the actions of Todorov and Simeonov a crime.
“The threats on air and the lack of sensitivity to the freedom of speech are a crime and we expect the politicians to protect these freedoms, not to limit them. The political class in Bulgaria has a very low trust credit by the Bulgarian citizens and behaviour like that showed in the studio of Nova is undermining further the authority of the Bulgarian politicians,” CDM said in a statement.
Nova’s owners also condemned the behavior of the two politicians, while GERB said in a statement that Todorov's statements were his personal opinion. At the same time, Toma Bikov, a GERB MP, was quoted by local media as saying that Todorov's words were an "inappropriate joke". However, the party has not issued an official statement nor asked Todorov to take responsibility for his statement.
Todorov said in a Facebook post that he had been misunderstood, while Simeonov has demanded an apology from Nova TV and three other media outlets, claiming that he had been a victim of an organised attack.
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