Thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expectations of the Bulgarian society to become part of democratic processes and forms of governance, as if we are headed for failure. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, lecturer at FJMK, commented in "The Network" on the program "Hristo Botev" who, why and how were Bulgaria and the Bulgarian media taken over after November 10, 1989.
"On November 10, 1989, we did not get rid of communism, because it never came, nor even from the BKP and its power, because it was almost never in power. She was not in power because the Soviet Communist Party ruled through her. And all the important orders came from Moscow, including the order for the BKP to withdraw from the government. So the only thing we got rid of was the official ideology that divided opinions into right and wrong. Today at least we have some freedom of thought.
The big theme for me is how far we are able to preserve this freedom of thought. Regarding what we call corruption, but the situation is much more serious, after September 9, a kleptocratic elite came to Bulgaria and carried out a huge theft of people's money, fields, property and even household goods. A self-proclaimed group that exercises dictatorship on behalf of the proletariat. This kleptocratic elite after 1989 one way or another the thefts continued and a large part of the public resource practically goes to private rather than public interest. That's what we're trying to deal with – on the one hand, to stop these thefts, and on the other hand, to preserve our freedom of thought and the right to opinion, which they had barely won after 45 years of ideological slavery.
The bad thing is that now ideological claims are reappearing and they are again trying to make us think in the Soviet way and think that liberal democracy is some kind of mistake in the development of our society.
We are made to think that our bias towards the East and towards the regime of Putin and other autocrats is hardly our bright future again. So 35 years later from November 10, we face the same questions, even in a more dramatic way."
The three periods of the Bulgarian media – romantic, market and corporate schemes
"The last period has not yet ended, although there was an attempt to get out of it and for the media to enter a traditional democratic system in which they have relative independence. In all cases, however, the media continue to be a pillar of freedom of thought. Because regardless of all the difficulties, they still open a fan of points of view. We notice attempts to show even criticality towards power and power contenders. This is evident in two ways. First, many of the leaders have shunned the media and prefer, after Trump's death, to communicate with their audiences only through social networks. And when they enter the media, they are ready to talk to journalists themselves, refusing to abide by the standards of an independent journalism that requires politicians to answer the questions that the public asks through journalists. So we are still in the third period, but at least the struggle to get out of it has not stopped."
What gave wings to politicians to be aggressive towards journalists
"This is something new, because before the attempts of politicians to dictate the behavior of journalists, it happened behind the scenes. I.e. the politicians were ashamed to come out and openly behave like this on air. There have been isolated cases, of course. Back then, there was influence from corporate power configurations towards the media, but there was not yet this open brazenness to say what questions journalists should ask you.
Now this is starting to become quite obvious and demonstrative. This is because globally autocrats, meaning one form of dictatorship or another, are becoming a more popular prospect for societies than democracy. Then politicians start to have visible dictatorial gestures in their public behavior. We are unfortunately seeing the first symptoms. So one day you wake up in a dictatorship, if you don't manage to oppose categorically. Because after 1989 we achieved a hybrid society that is not known in history – something between Soviet regime and democracy – hybrid mixed. Now the tendency is for the dictatorial regime to return as an alternative to democracy. And this is already being said boldly. In the election campaign, he campaigned for original structures and leaving the EU. There should be a quick and solidary reaction against this, because these are really the first symptoms."
Symptoms of dictatorship
"Besides the behavior of politicians in the media, another symptom of the dictatorship is what happened in front of the National Theater. Some people have the confidence that they can tell you what to watch and not watch and what to post and not post. Thus begins "The Plague" of Camus – here and there a rat came out of its hole like a dazed rat and died, and people did not yet realize that this was the beginning of the Plague Epidemic, which is a metaphor for fascism, which is a metaphor for dictatorship. So we must have at this moment a particularly keen sense of the first symptoms of dictatorship, if they are the first at all. The media is a very important player in this regard because, as Chomsky says – dictatorship is known by the fact that the media is under the control of the government, and democracy by the fact that the government is under the control of the media.
And one of the organizers of the protest in front of the National Theater said that he was inspired by Trump's election. This is the broad context of what is happening in our country. The big risk is that Trump will disintegrate the system of Euro-Atlanticism that emerged after WWII. Euro-Atlanticism then manifests itself with US aid to Europe to rebuild after the war, to be a shield against communism and dictatorships. It is a rallying of democracy against the risks of a dictatorship emerging again. If this stops, we will automatically go into the sphere of dictatorship, especially Bulgaria."
The claim that freedom of speech has collapsed after Bulgaria joined the EU
"This is due to something very simple. Until our entry into the EU, Bulgaria implemented the criteria that are necessary to enter the EU, and indeed then there were major problems in the media laws. So that the Bulgarian media system becomes harmonious and synchronizes with the European one. Then the important steps were really taken to achieve the freedom of the media. Civil organizations in the sector played a big role in this. After we entered the EU, civil society organizations decided that they had done their job and left the media to their owners, who went into corporate relations. At the same time, the big players who maintained professional standards and did not play the local games began to leave the country for business reasons. All this led to the control and passing through the media of the capitals of the transition, which are shadow capitals, which in turn formed this media behavior. When business and the state are conquered, civic organizations are the last hope for civil liberties and rights."
The bill of "Revival" about "foreign agents"
"This law is used in Moscow as a main tool, I assume it will be the same here, to crack down on civil organizations, telling them they were agents because they were funded from outside. Well, how will they not be financed from the outside, given that here corporate ties to a dictatorial regime, such as the one in the Kremlin, have blocked all sources.
I don't know if the public is able to hold the debate on this bill after it has been subjected to very strong political attacks and aggression. I have no hope that the Bulgarian society has enough resistance forces to prevent this rising repressive wave. Now further boosted by Trump's victory in the US. So the only hope is to preserve the Euro-Atlantic majority within the borders of the parliament, which will not allow such a law to be passed to deal with the civil sector. I hope that the Bulgarian political establishment will still be able to resist the rising dictatorship. This law, we should not doubt, recites the Russian use of this same law, which is a direct dictatorial use. I hope that the media will also do their job, or at least that individual journalists will show personal professional heroism and do their job, regardless of the pressure they receive and which is clearly visible."