Bulgaria / Europe & Central Asia

  

‘I am challenged at the court for simply doing my job’: Journalists covering climate issues in Europe face growing threats

Skyrocketing temperatures and catastrophic flooding have hammered home the realities of climate change in Europe, making environmental coverage one of the continent’s most important beats. It’s also an increasingly dangerous one as journalists face legal and physical harassment for reporting on polluters, amid other concerns. Of course, Europe isn’t the only place where journalists find…

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A news kiosk in downtown Sofia, in May 2017. When CPJ traveled to Bulgaria in April 2019 it found that despite being threatened for their work, Bulgaria's investigative journalists are undeterred. (AFP/Nikolay Doychinov)

Bulgaria’s press navigate harassment, threats in pursuit of stories

In October 2018, Viktoria Marinova, a host for TVN, was raped and murdered near the station’s studios. When CPJ’s Europe correspondent, Attila Mong, spoke with her colleagues and other journalists during a trip to Bulgaria last month, they said that while they don’t believe the attack is linked to Marinova’s work, it has highlighted the…

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Protesters clash with riot police during a protest in Sofia in July. (AP/Georgi Kozhuharov)

Bulgarian journalists are under attack

This summer, for good reason, the world’s attention was focused on Turkey. Anti-government protests over plans to destroy a park in downtown Istanbul attracted global attention. Ankara’s strategic importance in Syria and the Middle East, as well as being a member of NATO, makes what happens in Turkey important.

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Beyond the Bulgarian umbrella

“The current situation has made it necessary for the First Main Directorate (PGU) of [Russia’s] KGB to give the First Main Directorate of [Bulgaria’s] Ministry of Internal Affairs the following special means: devices for silent, mechanical ejection of special needles, containing swift poisons. …” The above is an excerpt from Addendum 13 of the “Perspective…

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