Author: Ruslan Trad

On Feb. 18, 2010, bTV, one of the most popular TV channels in Bulgaria, got a new owner – Central European Media Enterprises. bTV is the first private national TV station in Bulgaria. bTV’s program was broadcast for the first time on June 1, 2000, thus breaking the monopoly of the public national TV station and changing entirely the media environment in Bulgaria.
For eight years, bTV firmly established itself as the most watched TV channel in Bulgaria, with nearly 37% share of all viewers and with leading positions on the advertising market. bTV has a 24-hour programming. It targets the family audience, offering a quality selection of movies, reality formats, talk shows and comedy programs. The news and feature programs of bTV established themselves as the information leader with the highest rating of viewers’ trust.

Central European Media Enterprises, which has acquired bTV, is the leading television broadcaster in Central and Eastern Europe. The company was founded by Ronald Lauder in 1994 and together with its local partners it operates TV Nova, Nova Sport, Nova Cinema and MTV in the Czech Republic, PRO TV, PRO TV International, ACASA, PRO CINEMA, Sport.ro and MTV Romania in Romania, TV Markíza, Nova Sport, Television Doma and MTV in Slovakia, POP TV, Kanal A and TV Pika in Slovenia, and Studio 1+1, 1+1 International and Kino in Ukraine.

On my blog [BUL], I publish information about this deal:

[…] Under the terms of the deal, CME will acquire 100% of bTV […]. CME will pay $400 million for 100% of bTV and parts of bTV Comedy and bTV Cinema and 74% of the radio stations N-Joy, Z-Rock, Melody, Jazz FM, Classic FM. […]

Maryan Tomov wrote this on his blog Journalist BG:

There is nothing new that the deal is being prepared since the middle of last year. […] My sources from Pro.bg informed me that the conclusion of an agreement is only a matter of time, so much for that. Today (January 27th) Reuters said that CME is in the final stage of negotiations for the buying of bTV from Rupert Murdoc's News Corporation for $500 million. […]

Another blog, BGtelevizor, wrote [BUL]:

[…] Adrian Sarbu, President and CEO of CME, said the purchase of bTV is the next step in the repositioning of CME after the sale of their business in Ukraine […]

For the past two years, a seafront promenade in Varna known as the First Alley has been a cause of confrontation between civil society organizations and TIM Group, which runs projects throughout Eastern Bulgaria and owns many of the hotels on the coast. The activists are fighting against large-scale construction and are trying to protect the Sea Garden landscape park in Varna.

A protest poster: “Sea Garden is not for sale!”

One of the most vocal opponents of the construction project is Kalina Pavlova, a local architect. She is considered “the face” of civil society in Varna by some. Together with other citizens and NGOs, she actively works to let the public know about the circumstances of the sale of 122 acres of the Varna coast to “Holding Varna”, a TIM Group company, and about the support that private investors are getting from the municipality as they are trying to build a whole new city by the coastline of Varna: seven hotels, some 500 bars and 300 shopping centers (more graphics and photos from the location – at view.point, Pavel Yanchev's blog; BUL). In 2009, Ms. Pavlova received a special award from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee for “exclusive civil courage in protecting the public interest against the illegal acts of the local institutions in favour of private corporations.”

User mok wrote this [BUL] at Arhitektura.bg blog on Oct. 9, 2009:

[…] This is one of the many deals struck in our dear fatherland, that everybody knows is illegal, but is deemed legal by the ones who can make it so. You are aware of our current government's motto (besides dealing with the crisis) – fighting corruption. As funny or as trivial as it may seem, we are witnessing the annulment of old deals, swaps, etc., from [the times of the Triple Coalition], found to be illegal. All that has to be done in this case was for the deal in question to be reviewed, declared illegal and therefore void. Yes, but not quite. No one's ever going to do something that's not in their interest. As long as there isn't enough uproar anyway. Is that all? Is this how things should be? Should deals contrary to the common interest be made, can't the same beautiful architecture be build with a lot of money, but in a manner not only intended to satisfy the interest of the investors?

Here is a comment from one of the readers:

It is very interesting how in this article has been highlighted that the new government reviewed the old deals, but unfortunately did not follow the new deals – I wonder why? The game [corruption] does not stop, only the players [the government] put on new faces.

Jurgen Roth, a German journalist, wrote this about TIM Group:

“[It] represents the most advanced form of organized crime, an example of what is indicated by the term “Mafia Borghese”- a structure penetrated in the higher spheres of society.”

Mr. Roth is the author of a book on organized crime in Bulgaria and is currently being sued for slander by Rumen Petkov, Bulgaria's former interior minister (earlier GV posts about the situation with Mr. Petkov are here and here). Mr. Roth chose not to show up for the second hearing of the trial this past Monday, due to threats from Mr. Petkov that he claims to have received.

Attempts to intimidate anti-construction activists in Varna have also taken place. Blogger Toross reported (BUL):

[…] Architects and organizers of the protests Nikolay Tsvetkov and Kancho Bonev were attacked – with this message, “We know what you do.”

[…]

NGOs protesting against the controversial deal sent an official letter to the prosecutor general and [PM Boyko Borisov]. No reaction. […]

Ms. Pavlova is quoted saying this (BUL) in Mirela Veselinova's text on the mafia's new project that appeared on e-vestnik.bg, an online news site:

[…] There is just no other way to live a decent life – to make a home for yourself, build a career. If you are too afraid to stand up for your rights, then you might as well leave the country. […]

On Feb. 26, some 40 people attended a debate titled “Islam as a threat – again in fashion?”, held at the Center for Culture and Debate “Red House” in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. Speakers included Saleh Breh, a psychologist at the University of Damascus, Vladimir Chukov, a specialist in Islam, and Nidal Hlayf, a student in film directing.

Approximately 1 million Muslims live in Bulgaria (whose total population is about 8 million people). Many people have an idea about Islam, because there has been a Muslim population in the country for centuries. But there are political parties that create problems between Christians and Muslims: in recent years nationalism has become stronger and more aggressive, and some people believe that Islam is dangerous. This is why a debate like the one that took place in Sofia (BUL) is important for the society. Its purpose was to discuss whether Islam presents a danger for Europe. Among others, members of the nationalist Bulgarian National Movement party attended the debate; according to BNM, Islam is dangerous and is an instrument of Turkish interests. (Here is a link to Vladimir Chukov's article on the “Bulgarian Ethnic Model.”

A post on the debate appeared on Muslims and American Cinema (http://muslim-cinema.blogspot.com), a Bulgarian-language blog on stereotypical portrayal of Muslims in the movies, administered by Hlayf Nidal, who has written a doctoral thesis in film directing in Sofia. Below are excerpts from this post (BUL):

[…] The audience consisted mainly of Bulgarian citizens, some elderly, but there were also many young people […]

Professor Chukov outlined the two main types of immigration patterns – Anglo-Saxon, which is more liberal in its view, and French – more restrictive towards minorities. […] To our general surprise, it appeared that Denmark has already allowed the creation of a Muslim party [see this post at Islam in Europe blog]. […]

[Ruslan Trad] presented a slide project with a list of blogs in the Arab and Islamic world, which contained information on the ban to cover events such as prosecution of political opponents in Egypt [see this GV post for more], imprisoned bloggers [e.g., Free Kareem and Free Bashir El Hazem campaigns), […], blogs of women from the Middle East who are fighting for more rights [e.g., www.feministcollective.com]. The aim was to show the public that […] the Islamic world is not some inert mass, but is concerned about what happens to it and to the world, especially with regard to the younger generation. […]

Nidal Hlayf talked about stereotypes in movies. […] [The practice] of juxtaposing the Islamic world against the West is so rooted that it is difficult to go beyond stereotypes […]. […] A debate on why the image of Arabs and Muslims is so stable […]. First, because of the still painful memories of the past clashes with Islam in the West, military or cultural; second, because the United States inherited the Orientalist imagination of the European settlers; third, since the end of the 19th century, American missionary activity in the Islamic world has increased.

Dr. Saleh Brik from the University of Damascus talked about the difficulty accepting the “Other” religion due to ignorance of it. [An example of the Swiss ban on construction of minarets]: […] the minarets are not the most important part of religion to a Muslim and they are not the main problem with Muslim communities.

Maya Tsenova, an Arabist from Center for Eastern Languages and Cultures, added that “one is afraid of what one does not know” and that “the West had had encounters with Muslims before it met with Islam.” A man who is ignorant is the enemy of ourselves and others, as one Arab proverb says.

There are some comments to my blog post (BUL) for this event. One reader wrote about Islamism and terrorism in other Balkan states:

Around us [Bulgaria], it is better not to forget Bosnia and Kosovo, which are copies of those ideas in the Balkans.

The situation in Kosovo is important for Bulgaria because many people fear that what happened there and in Bosnia could happen in Bulgaria, too.