IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO ALLOW THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM TO BE USED AS A WEAPON TO SUPPORT AMBITIONS FOR A TOTAL MEDIA MONOPOLY

DECLARATION OF THE SC OF KRIB

The Management Board of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria - KRIB, expresses its serious concern about the use of non-economic methods in the competition between media groups in Bulgaria.

For us, the case with the attempts to impose a judicial seizure on the newspapers published by "Media Group Bulgaria Holding" Ltd., critically worsens the media environment immediately before the holding of the presidential and local elections in the country. Such a situation also prevents Bulgarian journalism from fulfilling its mission of helping the citizens of Bulgaria to make informed decisions in order to have a working democracy and an efficient market economy.

Our position is that it is unacceptable that the judicial system should be allowed to be used as a weapon to support the ambitions of a total media monopoly and fight against freedom of speech by people who have proven more than once by their actions that they seek material gain through the means of unfair competition and abuse of media influence, with impermissible party support. As people of free enterprise and economic initiative, we are convinced that such an approach is vicious. The citizens of Bulgaria deserve access to more sources of information and greater choice in the variety of different types of editorial content.

Management Board of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB)