Report on Soft Censorship in Bulgaria Released

Curbing Media, Crippling Debate: Soft Censorship in Bulgaria is the latest in the series of reports examining the problem of soft censorship globally, published by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and WAN-IFRA.

Soft censorship is used to promote positive coverage of officials or their actions-and to punish media outlets that criticize them. It is the practice of influencing news coverage of state bodies and officials and their policies and activities through allocation or withholding of state media spending (subsidies, advertising, and other media contracts), or selective application of licensing, permits, or regulations, to shape the broad media landscape; promote or diminish the economic viability of specific media houses or outlets; and reward or punish individual media workers.

Through detailed research, WAN-IFRA and CIMA are drawing attention to the kinds of widespread and deleterious problems facing independent media that rarely generate the same level of international outrage as direct attacks on the press. The findings and recommendations of the soft censorship research series aim to contribute to the implementation of fair and transparent rules that are necessary for the development of independent media sectors around the world.

Explore some of the previous CIMA / WAN-IFRA reports on soft censorship:

Bad Practices, Bad Faith: Soft Censorship In Macedonia (December 2015)

Eroding Freedoms: Media And Soft Censorship In Montenegro (November 2015)

Media Reform Stalled in the Slow Lane: Soft Censorship In Serbia (October 2015)

Articles of Asphyxiation: Soft Censorship in Hungary (October 2015)

The series of reports on soft-censorship by WAN-IFRA and CIMA have been launched with the support from the Open Society Foundations.