Large fines imposed on media outlets in Bulgaria may lead to censorship in reporting on issues of public interest, says Mijatović

VIENNA, 4 February 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today raised concern over large fines imposed on newspapers in Bulgaria for publishing news stories on companies’ financial activities and the banking sector.

On 14 January, the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) imposed a fine of approximately €80,000 on the Economedia group for stories last summer in its publications Capital and Dnevnik. The FSC labelled the news stories as market manipulation and imposed additional fines of €5,000 on the newspapers for refusing to disclose their sources for the stories.

“Large fines imposed on media outlets may lead to censorship in reporting on issues of public interest,” Mijatović said. “My Office has been calling for laws protecting media from displaying their sources as a means to guarantee the publics’ access to information.”

Earlier in January, the FSC also fined Alpico Publishing and its online newspaper zovnews.com €50,000 for reporting on the banking sector.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom.