One Year Without TV

On 11 November, 2003 the Council for Electronic Media in Bulgaria withdrew the legally issued license for a Christian TV station in Bulgaria. The program of TV Den [Day], where the Christian TV program “Christianity” was broadcasted, was stopped from distribution by the cable networks in Bulgaria. The decision was made by the Council for Electronic Media (CEM, the official Bulgarian media regulator) who took away the license of Union Television, author and broadcaster of the Den program. The motive for CEM’s decision was “systematic breaches of the principles for conducting broadcasting activity set forth in the Radio and TV Act, which disallows programs instigating national, political, ethnic, religious and racial intolerance”. CEM’s decision was provoked by Den’s “From Telephone to Microphone” show which had previously been fined for other instances of broadcasts instigating ethnic intolerance.” I object to the Bulgarian National Television broadcasting news in Turkish,” anchor of the show Nick Stein, a German national who has been living in Bulgaria for several years now, told his viewers in July. Director of Studio 865 Stoyko Petkov, producer of the program “Christianity”, expressed his concern about the easy way of applying the most drastic penalty to media without debate. “This is too radical decision by CEM. The law is providing other options for sanction. Actually, the same show (“From Telephone to Microphone”) was soon reproduced by another station. The penalty then affects the Christian programs more than to the mentioned show.”