Bulgaria
Despite increasing international pressure, media freedom in Bulgaria has not improved in 2020. They are on the 91st place in the RSF World Press Freedom Index, which makes them the lowest scoring European country. Corruption is a big problem in Bulgaria, which is affecting the transparency and independence of the media landscape. Besides that, legal harassment of independent media and dissident voices is on the rise.
Corruption and collusion between media, politicians and oligarchs is widespread in Bulgaria. The government continues to fund media outlets with EU grants and public funds without any transparency, using it as leverage to pressure media outlets to be less critical in their reporting, or skip certain subjects entirely. Media that do remain critical of the government are denied state advertising and access to information.
Cross-border collaboration
Collaboration between independent journalists in Europe and connection with their audiences are increasingly becoming key factors for their success. This is especially important in countries where journalists are under increased risk of losing their jobs due to political or economic constraints, like Bulgaria. With greater support from their societies, these independent voices can become stronger and more impactful. Therefore, Free Press Unlimited is leading the project ‘Enhancing Audience-Supported Collaborations for Empowered Media and Societies’, co-funded by the European Commission.
Crowdfunded journalism
Our aim with this project is to support collaboration between journalists and other media professionals from eight European Union countries, and help them find additional sources of sustainable income through crowdfunding. This will support the viability of independent journalism in EU countries where media freedom is in decline. Journalists from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Czechia and Greece will be invited to create collaborative stories to be pitched and then funded through the crowdfunding platform Press Start.
Photo: Forever_carrie_on.
