Bulgaria’s parliament has passed a law designed to improve transparency in the media.
According to Capital, four members of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – Delyan Peevsky, Yordan Tsonev, Hamid Hamid and Velislava Krasteva – proposed the legislation, arguing that its purpose is to make media ownership transparent by leveraging funding in the media and its “real” owners.
However, Peevsky, after who the law is named, has himself been criticised for not declaring a conflict of interest related to his own media assets. Tsonev, on the other hand, dismissed this criticism, arguing that the legislation is an attempt to control external influences on the media. It is not about one person, but about Bulgaria.
The main points of the new law were previously outlined in a Broadband TV News report late last month.