Press freedom stalled in Bulgaria: RSF demands reforms ahead of snap elections

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for urgent and systemic reforms to improve Bulgaria’s media environment, warning that independent journalism remains under sustained pressure from legal harassment, political inaction and opaque economic interests.

The organisation issued key recommendations for urgent measures to improve Bulgaria’s media environment, against a backdrop of growing number of lawsuits targeting reporters in one of the EU’s poorest member states.

“Journalism is vital to maintaining a transparent and functioning democracy,” RSF stressed.

Bulgaria ranks 70th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, placing it among the three worst-performing EU member states. According to RSF, five years of chronic political instability, including seven snap elections since 2021, have significantly delayed or derailed the structural reforms needed to safeguard media freedom.

This prolonged institutional gridlock has, in practice, allowed systemic vulnerabilities in the media landscape to persist, leaving journalists exposed to pressure from political actors, powerful business interests and foreign influence campaigns.

“Media freedom levels in Bulgaria have remained among the lowest in the EU for years due to the authorities’ inaction, making the country vulnerable to hostile politicians, arbitrary business interests and Russian propaganda,” said Pavol Szalai, head of RSF’s Prague bureau.

“Unless systemic measures are taken to protect it, independent journalism will continue to fade – along with citizens’ right to information,” he added.

RSF points to an increasingly hostile working environment for reporters, particularly those covering corruption, organised crime and abuse of power. Journalists in these fields are frequently subjected to intimidation, threats and legal pressure.

The recent case involving investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov was cited as a “concerning” example of legal harassment. Additional alarm was raised last week following reports that the bank accounts of a journalist from investigative outlet Bird.bg had been frozen, highlighting the financial dimension of such pressure.

RSF has urged Bulgaria to accelerate the adoption of the EU’s anti-SLAPP directive and to introduce comprehensive national legislation to counter strategic lawsuits against public participation.

In a rapid institutional response, caretaker justice minister Andrey Yankulov proposed legal amendments aimed at strengthening protections for journalists. However, the responsibility for adopting these measures will fall to the next parliament, underscoring the political dimension of the issue.

The debate over media reform is unfolding in parallel with a high-stakes electoral context. RSF’s recommendations are likely to be taken up by a future government and parliament potentially dominated by the “Progressive Bulgaria” coalition led by former president Rumen Radev, who is currently leading in opinion polls ahead of the 19 April elections.

According to the latest data from polling agency Market Links, Radev could secure up to 110 seats in the 240-member parliament, placing him in a strong position to form a stable government through a two-party coalition.

SLAPP threat

SLAPP lawsuits remain one of the most significant structural threats to media freedom in Bulgaria. Dozens of ongoing cases are targeting journalists and media outlets, often involving substantial financial claims brought by large corporations, insurance companies, politicians and members of the judiciary.

These cases are widely seen as a tool to drain resources, intimidate reporters and discourage investigative work, rather than to seek legitimate legal redress. The issue is not new. RSF representatives met six years ago with then-prime minister and current GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who received the organisation but ultimately failed to implement its recommendations – a pattern RSF now implicitly contrasts with current reform pledges.

Beyond legal safeguards, RSF is also calling for structural changes to ensure the independence and sustainability of public service media.

“The financial independence of public radio and television broadcasters must be ensured through adequate, sustainable and predictable multiannual funding, insulated from political pressure,” RSF said, warning that current funding mechanisms allow governments to exert influence through budgetary decisions.

Transparency remains another critical fault line. RSF criticised the continued lack of clarity regarding media ownership, as well as the uneven and often non-transparent allocation of state advertising – both of which distort the media market and undermine editorial independence.

“State authorities must take firm action against media outlets that fail to comply with ownership transparency requirements, particularly those actively engaged in disinformation campaigns, spreading hate speech or being used as tools of pressure against independent journalists,” the organisation said.

RSF called on the next Bulgarian government to develop a comprehensive national strategy to counter disinformation and foreign influence operations. This should include addressing Russian propaganda and increasingly visible Chinese state-backed narratives, while carefully avoiding measures that could restrict legitimate journalism.

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