European funding must not be allocated to government-controlled media, and the European Commission must regularly assess government interference and transparency of media ownership. This is the appeal launched by 553 MEPs in a special resolution on the consolidation of the freedom of the media. And even though the resolution is not binding, it is the latest in a succession of European documents expressing concern over the state of the media on the territory of the community.

“The idea of the resolution is not just to state what problems there are in Europe, but to find an instrument to solve them. The ambition is to make it the basis of a legislative framework and decisions to be adopted by the European Commission,” MEP Elena Yoncheva, PES shadow rapporteur explained for the BNR. However, many of the problems in the report are to be discerned in the media environment in Bulgaria.

“On the one hand, as rapporteur I have tried to advance the interests of Bulgaria, with the problems which concern the media situation in the country. But on the other some of these problems exist in Poland and Hungary as well. In the resolution we have intentionally refrained from naming any countries,” Yoncheva says.

She points out that the proposals she made were included in the document and that they are of utmost importance to Bulgaria.

“Firstly, distribution of funding under the European communication programmes must not be carried out by the governments of the member countries. We all know that that is the way to create obedient and submissive media, and unless the media are a corrective to the authorities they cannot, in practice, perform their functions. To avoid the allocation of funds by pro-government civil society organizations, they must not be allocated by national organizations at all,” Yoncheva says.

This role should be assigned to a Europe-based organization which enjoys sufficient support and trust and which abides by all journalistic criteria and standards.

“We now expect concrete legislation of the European Commission, and if there is no clear result after that the battle shall continue. I’d say that a good beginning would be to try and regulate the media environment and climb up from the 111^th place in the world press freedom index which Bulgaria now occupies, these are objective criteria for the country,” says the MEP who is a former TV journalist famous for her reporting from various hot spots around the world.

The government is not an ally to high standard, genuine journalism, Elena Yoncheva says. The MEP stressed that the new resolution stipulates the creation of a fund to help investigative journalism and proposes the drafting of European legislation to protect journalists from lawsuits which aim to pressure, discredit or intimidate them. 

The document warns that the freedom of the media has been deteriorating in recent years, and that the Covid-19 crisis is only making the problem worse. Amidst the pandemic journalists are more and more often covering events online, and the distancing requirements are a hindrance to their putting their questions directly. In connection with this, concrete legislative measures are expected of the European Commission to ensure transparency of the actions of administrations.

Interview with Elena Yoncheva by Silvia Velikova for the BNR programme “Politically INcorrect”.

Edited by Elena Karkalanova