Bulgaria: Bulgarian media groups warned yesterday that the state could use stringent new restrictions on television broadcasts to censor the content of news programmes.
The Council on Electronic Media, Bulgaria's main media watchdog, this week banned the airing of "sensational information on violence, crime and cruelty" from 6am to 11pm, ostensibly to protect children from disturbing images.
But several major broadcasters have now voiced fears that the ruling could be used to stop news programmes showing the aftermath of the frequent and brazen mafia-style killings that have blighted Bulgaria's application to join the European Union in 2007.
The Association of Bulgarian Radio and TV Broadcasters urged the council to rescind its decision, saying it contradicted the constitutional guarantee of freedom of information and prohibition of censorship.
The ruling "amounts to censorship on news reporting and represents direct intervention in the editorial independence of electronic media", Albert Parsons, chief executive of the private BTV channel, said in a letter to the watchdog.
Bulgaria has been embarrassed by the impunity of its crime gangs, which have conducted ruthless and high-profile "turf wars", despite government assurances to the EU that cracking down on criminals is its priority.
Last month, one of the country's richest men was shot dead in the middle of the capital, Sofia. That came just weeks after a customs official was murdered, and two months after a businessman was killed by a sniper as he celebrated his football team's qualification for the Uefa Cup.
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