MEDIA IN BULGARIA

Historic Panorama
Silvia Grudkova
University of Veliko Turnovo
Bulgaria
 Some facts about Bulgaria
 Population: 7,263,710

 Capital city: Sofia

 Official language: Bulgarian
 Alphabet: Cyrillic
 Religions:
Traditional religion in the Republic of Bulgaria:
Eastern Orthodox Christianity – 82.6%: Muslim –
12.2%
 Joined EU on 1st January 2007
The Balkan Mountain Range /Great for hiking/
Devetashka cave
 The Seven Rila Lakes  are a main tourist
attraction in Bulgaria because of the inspiring
natural beauty of the place. 
Eco Beach CORAL
OLD HOUSES IN SOZOPOL
NESTINARI /sacred barefoot dance on burning
embers on the night of St. Constantine and St. Helen /
Cultural Heritage
 The Golden Treasure of
Panagyurishte
 Thracian treasure made of 23-karat pure
gold. Total weight of 6,164 kg.
 It comprises of a royal dinner set of 9 vessels
with original shape and decoration.
 There are rhytons with the shape of animal
heads of godesses.
 The jugs, amphoras and phials are decorated
with scenes from the ‘lliad”, faces and
animals.
Kukeri – an ancient ritual around New
Year’s Eve to drive away the evil spirits
 The mystery of the
Bulgarian voices
voices
 VELIKO TURNOVO

Veliko Turnovo is among the most visited

Bulgarian towns. It is one of the most
ancient towns and has a history of more
than five thousand years.

It was the medieval capital of Bulgaria.

(1186 – 1393)

Located in Central Bulgaria

The University
 St.st.Cyril and Methodius
University of Veliko Turnovo
 Founded in 1963.
9 faculties, over 80 programmes.
 Over 14 000 Bulgarian and international
students.
 Three-cycle educational system: Bachelor’s,
Master’s and Doctoral degrees.
 Student mobility through a credit
accumulation and transfer system
 Foreign Language Centres
1. British and Irish Studies Centre
2. American Corner
3. Centre Culturel De Cooperation - Institut Francais
4. German Centre
5. Austrian Library
6. Dutch Cultural Centre
7. Russian Cultural Centre
8. Japanese Language And Culture Centre
9. Chinese Language And Culture Centre
10. Polish Studies Centre
11. Modern Greek Studies Centre
12. Portuguese And Brazilian Studies Centre
13. Arabic Language and Culture
14. Slavic Studies Research Complex
15. Balkani Centre of Education And Culture
16. Bulgarian Studies Research Centres and Archives
17. Confucius Institute
 FLT Department

 ral know
The Department of Journalism
and PR studies
The creators of the Bulgarian alphabet –
St.st. Cyril and Methodius (9th century)
Celebrating the Day of the Bulgarian Alphabet
/24th May/
Christianity as the religion of the
written word (speech)

 Christianity was adopted in Bulgaria in 865 AD.

 The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the
First Bulgarian Empire during 9th century AD.
 Nowadays about 300 million people around the
world use the Cyrillic Script.
 On 1st April 2007 the Cyrillic alphabet became
the 3rd official alphabet in EU.
The Cyrillic alphabet
The early signs of journalism – a
response to social and cultural issues

 The need of ethnic emancipation of Bulgaria

among other Christian people: Chernorizets
Hrabar and his An Account of Letters (893).
Polemical text that defends the Old-Slavic script
and divine service in Bulgarian.
 The early signs of journalism:
social and cultural issues (Cosmas the Presbyter
and his work The Sermon on the Bogomils)

Defends Orthodox
Christianity and
through it the official
public social order
arguing that the
abandoning of moral
standards leads to
the heresy of
Bogomils and evil.
First steps of Bulgarian Journalism
during the Late National Revival
 European Renaissance (1300 - 1600) and late Bulgarian
National Revival (1762 – 1878)due to 5 centuries of
Ottoman ruling (1393 – 1878).
 First Bulgarian journal LYUBOSLOVIE (1844) :
encyclopedic character, aiming to form national self
esteem. Published by K.Fotinov in Smyrna (present day
Izmir, Turkey).
First Bulgarian Newspaper(1846)

Bulgarski Orel
Published in
Leipzig as the
Ottoman
authoritie
prohibited
printing press on
BG territory.
Ceased after 3
issues.
Publisher by Ivan
Bogorov.
Thriving Bulgarian Journalism
(1850 – 1878)
 Most journalist at the time were writers, poets and
revolutionaries. P.R. Slaveikov, G.S.Rakovski,
L.Karavelov, H.Botev. The dominant topics in their
periodicals and newspapers are devoted to the fight for
political freedom and autonomous church.
Foreign Jornalists and the April
Uprising of 1876
“But let me tell you what we saw at Batak ... The number of children killed in
these massacres is something enormous. They were often spitted on bayonets,
and we have several stories from eye-witnesses who saw the little babes carried
about the streets, both here and at Olluk-Kni, on the points of bayonets. The
reason is simple. When a Mohammedan has killed a certain number of infidels
he is sure of Paradise, no matter what his sins may be ... It was a heap of skulls,
intermingled with bones from all parts of the human body, skeletons nearly
entire and rotting, clothing, human hair and putrid flesh lying there in one foul
heap, around which the grass was growing luxuriantly. It emitted a sickening
odour, like that of a dead horse, and it was here that the dogs had been seeking
a hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted them ... The ground is
covered here with skeletons, to which are clinging articles of clothing and bits of
putrid flesh. The air was heavy, with a faint, sickening odour, that grows
stronger as we advance. It is beginning to be horrible. ”
Eyewitness account of J. A. MacGahan on Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, in a
letter to the London Daily News of August 22, 1876
 Journalism and political impact

 Articles from correspondents of The Times, Daily News,

Le Figaro, 15 newspapers in Moscow and St. Petersberg
about the attrocities and massacres in Bulgaria in 1876
changed the public opinion in Europe.
 William Gladstone, Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Victor
Hugo, Garibaldi spoke against the Turkish behaviour in
Bulgaria.
 The result: European demands for reform of the
Ottoman Empire, Britain didn’t support Turkey in the
war with Russia in 1877-78. The defeat of Turkey was
followed by the Treaty of San Stefano and the liberation
of Bulgaria in 1878.
 Modern Bulgarian Journalism –
1878 - 1944
 European character of the press due to the
modern political democratic system.
 More than 500 newspapers and periodical,
mostly published in Bulgaria.
 Variety of journalistic genres and coverage of
different topics from the parliamentary,
economic and cultural life in the country.
 Pluralism of journalistic practice.
ZORA (1919 – 1944)“Bulgarian Times”

 25 years of publishing history – the pulse of

the generation, the culture, literature, social
drama, European values, natural and social
disasters.
 The editor Krapchev – brilliant journalist,
democrat, outstanding writer, public figure .
Totalitarian period of BG journalism
(1944 – 1989)

 As a result from the end of the WWII (09.05.1945)

The USSR also took control of many of the countries in
Eastern Europe where they had fought the Germans. These
included Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia.
 Europe became divided into the Eastern Bloc of nations
and the West. The Eastern Bloc was led and controlled by
the Soviet Union (Russia). These countries were run by
communist governments and had their own alliance
called the Warsaw Pact. The Western countries, including
the United States, formed an alliance against
communism called NATO.
 Totalitarian period of BG
Journalism
 Reduced number of newspapers and journals.

 The press is supposed to show the advantages of the

totalitarian system. Opposing ideas are not allowed.

 The media are established with enactments from the

government, no matter the interest and the skills of
journalists and the demand of the readers.

 The attempt is to “frame” the journalism and make it

part of the political organization of the society.
Тhe newspaper of the Bulgarian
Communist Party
What is the connection between an
umbrella and Journalism?
 The Truth That Killed
Georgi Markov(1929 – 1978)
Dissident writer,
broadcaster,
playwright. After
1968 worked for the
BBC, Radio Free
Europe, Deutsche
Welle.
Assassinated on a
London street via a
micro pellet
containing poison,
fired into his leg from
an umbrella.
Is there such an animal?
 Sea of information and the voices of the
communicators
 The vast majority of newspapers and some online media outlets are
dependent on government funding and/or sell media product to the power
circles in politics and economics.
 The change in the ad mix has turned almost all print media into loss-
makers, and due to the low advertising prices, television channels have
become unattractive from an investment point of view.
 60 daily newspapers were published in Bulgaria in 2010, while in 2016 there
were 44. Despite the drop in ad revenue, the facts show that media are
undergoing a process of forming a stable information environment. It is
difficult to execute systematic observations
 Pauline Ades-Mevel, head of Europe and Balkan desk at RSF:"When
someone owns so many media, his goals are probably quite different from
journalistic . The concentration of such power is not only about the people
holding the power, but also about the consequences for the entire society”
 The importance of the skills of critical reading and listening.