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Bulgarian President Meets with IREX/ProMedia Resident Advisor

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov
(right) meets IREX Resident Advisor
Petko Georgiev (left). Photo by
KAPITAL, Bulgarian weekly newspaper.

On November 1, 2001, Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov met with Bulgarian IREX/ProMedia Resident Advisor Petko Georgiev, together with representatives of the Association of Bulgarian Broadcasters (ABBRO) and the Bulgarian Media Coalition (BMC), to discuss much-needed improvements of the media legislation in the country.

IREX has provided crucial support toward the development of both organizations into the strongest representatives of independent media in Bulgaria.

ABBRO brings together 90 percent of the independent Radio and Television stations in Bulgaria and in recognition of its successful development has been elected as president-association of the South East European Network of Associations of Private Broadcasters (SEENAPB).

BMC combines eleven Bulgarian NGOs active in the field of media, including all professional broadcast and cable TV and Radio associations, all journalist unions and associations, and key freedom of speech and FOIA activist organizations in the country.

At the meeting President Stoyanov concurred with ABBRO and BMC that a new Radio and Television Law and a new Telecommunications Law should be drafted and passed by Parliament and vowed to use his influence to speed up media law reform in the country.

President Stoyanov and the representatives of independent media in Bulgaria agreed that the new legislation should provide for the creation of a single independent regulatory body to replace the current politicized government institutions regulating broadcasting in Bulgaria.

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