The Bulgarian news channel Re:TV has closed due to the economic crisis gripping the country.
According to Novinite, the local millionaire businessman Ivo Prokopiev and Svetoslav Bozhilov and Ivan Kratsev, his associates at the Civic Media Foundation, announced its shutdown, citing the economic crisis and resulting slump in the advertising market.
Re:TV, which was launched nearly two years ago, was backed by BGN9 million (€4.57 million) in donations to the Civic Media Foundation.
It was set up as a response to the over-concentration of media in Bulgaria and, according to its owners, to demonstrate “that there could be transparent property and funding of media in Bulgaria, that Bulgarian society also has a place for serious and independent journalism.” However, “we failed.”
