The AEJ shares the acute concerns of our Bulgarian Section colleagues, who wrote an Open Letter to European Commissioner Neelie Kroes drawing her attention to the “corporate and political control” exercised over the major media groups in Bulgaria and the persistent failure of the authorities to investigate violent attacks against journalists.
AEJ Bulgaria has invited Ms Kroes, the Commissioner for media issues, to a face-to-face meeting with its members during her forthcoming visit to Sofia. At a Symposium on Media Freedom in the European parliament in Brussels on 8 May 2012 marking its 50th anniversary this year, the AEJ alerted the Commission to its fears about the crumbling of safeguards for media freedom in many parts of Europe, and urged the European Commission and the Parliament to act decisively to correct the worsening conditions for independent media.