The International Press Institute (IPI) has published a new report examining pending media reforms in Bulgaria and the country’s alignment with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).
The 2026 country report is part of the Media Capture Monitoring Report, produced annually by IPI and our partner the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC).
Bulgaria’s new government has put media reform on its agenda, but more than a year into the full application of the European Media Freedom Act, none of the changes it requires have been adopted.
Mass protests brought down the Zhelyazkov government in December 2025, and former president Rumen Radev’s new party won an outright majority in April 2026.
The new government is the first to list media among its priorities, pledging EMFA aligned amendments to the Radio and Television Act, and a Ministry of Culture working group has prepared a bill, but no text has yet been published. Public television has a new director, years after her predecessor’s term expired.
Yet pressure on newsrooms persists: BNT has removed a programme host, a deputy prime minister has disparaged public radio, the head of the state news agency is running for vice president, and the dismissal of a leading presenter at the private broadcaster bTV raised concerns about political interference.
This is the third iteration of the Media Capture Monitoring Report, which covers eight European Union countries: Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
IPI and MJRC have announced a major expansion of the annual report series to all 27 EU Member States shortly, creating a new EMFA implementation monitor.
These reports are intended as a vital resource for media rights organizations, civil society groups, policymakers, and advocates dedicated to monitoring and fostering media freedom across the EU.
Each country assesses the four safeguards in the EMFA that bear most directly on media capture: the independence of public service media, the independence of media regulators, protection against the misuse of state funds to influence the media, and transparency of media ownership and safeguards for media pluralism.
The 2026 edition follows the EMFA’s first year of full application, from August 8, 2025. Written by national experts and edited by MJRC and IPI, the reports are deliberately short: they track what has changed since the 2025 baseline assessment and identify the problems that remain.
The project is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. It is co-funded by the European Commission.
This report was coordinated by IPI and the MJRC as part of IPI’s work under the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries
