Bulgaria

(RSF/IFEX) – According to information released by RSF on 11 May 1998, Ana Zarkova, a well-known journalist with the daily newspaper “Trud”, was attacked at a bus stop near her home in a Sofia residential district. An unknown assailant splashed her with acid, burning her face, left eye, neck, and arms. She is seriously injured […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is urging Bulgarian authorities to review the five criminal libel convictions against Yovka Atanassova, the owner and editor of the independent local daily newspaper “Starozagorski Novini.” Atanassova was prosecuted under the provisions of the Bulgarian Penal Code (articles 146, 147, 148), which punish journalists with up to three years imprisonment for insult, […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to information released by RSF on 16 April 1998, Yovka Atanassova, managing director of the daily “Starozagorsky Novini”, in the southern Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora, was sentenced in mid-April 1998 to an effective five month jail sentence under a three-year suspended term. The sentence was handed down to Atanassova for libeling […]

(IPI/IFEX) – According to IPI, the satirical program Hashove (Rebels), which ran sketches parodying key members of the government, was officially taken off the air last week “due to irregularities in its sponsorship contract.” This decision, however, was made in the wake of a heated media debate as to whether Hashove undermined state authority. IPI […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to reports, a local appeal court in the southern Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora recently charged Yovka Atanassova, editor of and journalist for the daily Starozagorsky Novini, with a 1.5 million lev fine (about 550 dollars) under articles 147 and 148 of the Bulgarian penal code. If Atanassova fails to pay her […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Carolina Kraeva, director and journalist with the newspaper Istina (“Truth”) in Vratza, in northwestern Bulgaria. The warrant for Kraeva’s arrest follows a court decision to arrest her for “abusing and libelling” Georgy Assenov, a local police chief, in an article published on 20 May […]

On 18 July 1996, the Bulgarian Parliament approved by 125 votes out of 240 a bill laying down regulations for the operation of a new National Radio and Television Council. The bill states that programmes broadcast must be in accordance with “the constitutional order, state security, the interests of defence and shared moral values.” The […]