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© Julia Lazarova
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Media Program for Southeast Europe harshly criticized GERB MP Toma Bikov for his statement against the media in Europe, announcing that serious media in Germany do not charge for articles, especially related to Bulgaria . Yesterday the deputy announced that in the European media there are “publications paid directly by Bulgarians.” The reason for his comment was a series of articles in the western media, pointing to corruption scandals in the country.
“As I have no proof, I cannot say a specific publication, but a large part of them are requests. The European media also take money,” Bikov said yesterday.
Today, on its Facebook page, the Media Program for Southeast Europe denied that the German media had taken money for articles, especially related to Bulgaria. The organization also writes that as a member of the parliamentary committee on culture and media, Bikov was invited for a conversation, but he never responded.
“We would be happy to tell you that at least in the serious media in Germany, no one takes money for reporting, especially for text messages about Bulgaria,” the media program wrote.
For its part, the Brussels site Euractiv requested comments from Deutsche Welle, Spiegel, BBC, The Guardian, Euronews, Politico and IUOserver. From there, they categorically denied that their publications on Bulgaria were paid, emphasizing that such practices are alien to them. Western media added that they do not accept external payments to inform their readers and viewers, because this would be a serious violation of their professional duties and journalistic ethics.
Earlier this week, the German magazine SPIEGEL published its own investigation, according to which the Bulgarian government and then-chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov helped Turkey persecute various opponents of the Ankara regime and thus violated international conventions and legal principles. The post refers to secret messages from the Turkish embassy in Sofia.
The specific case that SPIEGEL writes about is the deportation of Abdullah Buyuk. He was wanted by Ankara on suspicion of ties to the preacher Fethullah Gulen’s organization, and he was quietly handed over to Turkish authorities in August 2016 in a way that has been criticized in many places. This happened without trial, without the possibility of consulting a legal advisor or her family or initiating an appeal against the broadcast, and Vice President Margarita Popova denied political asylum to the Turkish citizen.
Borissov has yet to comment on the case and Tsatsarov has denied the allegations in the investigation. What else the former chief prosecutor and current president of the Anticorruption Commission said about the case, read here. Buyuk himself announced that he was suing Bulgaria in the European Court of Human Rights.
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a political foundation close to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), of which German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one. He is also one of the European leaders closest to Borissov.
Earlier today, Democratic Bulgaria Co-President Atanas Atanasov said that SPIEGEL was a pro-government German publication and as such coordinated the information it published with the German government. “For me, this all means that he has withdrawn his support for Boyko Borissov,” he added.
