"The Council for Electronic Media categorically rejects any insinuations whatsoever regarding the denial of the atrocities in Bucha. This is a monstrous act of torture and killing of civilians and, acting on its own initiative, CEM addressed the issue more than a year ago," the Council said in a position circulated to the media on Thursday.
The media regulator specified to BTA that the statement responds to "numerous online publications" over the last two days accusing the Council and its Chair Sonya Momchilova regarding positions on the war in Ukraine.
The reference is apparently to the response to an interview with vlogger Asen Genov on Tuesday in which Momchilova said she "absolutely disagreed" with allegations that the Bulgarian media are "a vehicle of the Kremlin's interests and information" and specified that "propaganda runs in the opposite direction, too: about Putin's illness, his disease, about Bucha, etc."
CEM commented that administrative penalty proceedings have already been initiated and pecuniary penalties have been imposed on two providers who deny the atrocities of the war in Ukraine: one of BGN 15,000 and one of BGN 5,000. The action was taken as a result of last year's monitoring of radio and TV operator programmes' coverage of various topics related to the war.
CEM Chair Urged to Resign
In a related development, CEM member Prolet Velkova told www.dnevnik.bg that Momchilova has on numerous occasions aired her "anti-European and anti-democratic positions," on account of which Velkova and fellow CEM member Simona Veleva voted against her re-election as chair of the Council. "Such statements undermine the prestige of the Council for Electronic Media and ruin Bulgaria's international prestige," Velkova argued. In her opinion, the media regulator is tasked, among other things, with restraining fake news, disinformation and propaganda messages, which is why it is inadmissible that its Chair Sonya Momchilova, of all people, should circulate them.
In a letter to National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov, the parliamentary culture and media committee and CEM itself, 18 prominent journalists on Thursday demanded Momchilova's removal from office. They urged her to resign and the Council to distance itself from her conduct and take the steps necessary for her release.
They argue that "the open circulation of disinformation, lies and Russian state propaganda by the head of the media regulator raises the issue about the purposes for which Bulgarian taxpayers' money is spent, including Momchilova's salary."
The authors of the letter find it "outrageous" that "while the EU is making efforts to counter the Kremlin's hybrid tactics, the chair of the Bulgarian media regulator articulates the propaganda of the aggressor country and confronts with the official position of Bulgaria and of our European family regarding the war in Ukraine."
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