BULGARIA-MEDIA: What Will be on the Box?

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Boris Basmadjiev

SOFIA, Apr 23 1996 (IPS) - Bulgarians glued to their TV sets these days are getting more than the normal programming fare: they are also being given an insight into what national television will look like in the future.

For the TV newscasts also feature reports on the struggle for control of Bulgarian National Television. The post of director general will soon be vacant — again. Ivan Granitski, the incumbent, is reportedly about to be axed. Not only that: he could also face prosecution for allegedly tampering with advertising.

Under Bulgarian law, the heads of the state TV and radio are appointed by a parliamentary committee on radio, TV and the national news agency BTA.

Granitski, a former literary critic, was appointed just a year ago by the then newly formed socialist government. Ever since that time he has been the focus of criticism and controversy. His style of management has been compared to old Stalinist-type authoritarian rule.

“I was called and told my contract would not be renewed, or if renewed, I would have a show only once a week, as there would be new faces coming in,” TV anchor-woman Diliana Grozdanova said about management under Granitski.

Grozdanova has for many years had her own show. Called ‘Reverberations’, it is a current affairs commentary that runs daily after the evening news and is one of the most-watched programmes on TV.

The opposition newspaper Demokratsia said trying to muzzle all journalists at the national TV has been the hallmark of Granitski’s rule.

In the fall of 1995 Granitski went so far as to forbid the telecast of a special announcement by the United Democratic Forces (UDF – which formed the first post-communist government and now is in the opposition) leader Ivan Kostov, which, under Bulgarian law, the state TV was, and is, obliged to do.

“When we went to protest and arranged a meeting with Granitski, we were denied entrance to the building of the TV station and half an hour later a guard told us Granitski was out having a beer in a nearby pub and that we could find him there if we so wished,” Kostov said.