BNT condemned blatant disregard of election campaign broadcasting agreement

The BNT management issued a statement after the agreed rules of debate set in the agreement between the Central Election Commission, BNT and political parties on the conduct of the election campaign were breached during the October 1 edition of BNT’s “Referendum” live talk show and the broadcasting of the show was temporarily suspended.

This Tuesday, the “Referendum”live talk show was dedicated to the upcoming local elections. The theme and the guests were in compliance with the agreement that BNT signed with the participants in the elections. The heads of pre-election campaign staffs from various parties were meant to discuss issues related to the forthcoming municipal vote. One of the participants, the leader of the nationalist Ataka party and candidate mayor for Sofia, Volen Siderov, disrupted the live talk and violated the limits on his speaking time. He behaved direspectfully towards other participants and parties in the show as well as show host Dobrina Cheshmedzhieva.

Lack of respect – this is how the show host Dobrina Cheshmedzhieva described the situation from last night.

Politicians cannot take over the air, said "Refernedum" talk show editor Tatiyana Tasseva.

Siderov’s statements were directed in particular against his former nationalist ally, the VMRO party. He said that VMRO leader Krassimir Karakachanov, who is Defence Minister and Deputy PM, had stolen billions from the Bulgarian people and gave them to the Americans. Siderov said that Angel Dzhambazki, who is the VMRO MEP and VMRO’s Sofia mayoral candidate, is gay.

When the host of the show made attempts to bring order to the show, Siderov accused her of censorship.

The host tried many times to get Siderov to stay within the set speaking time limits, the topic of the show and the agreed rules of debate. At some stage she ordered his microphone switched off because Siderov was exceeding his speaking time.

Two gendarmerie and a member of the BNT team came to the studio and stood near Siderov.

At some stage Cheshmedzhieva asked for broadcasting to be suspended. The show resumed after about six minutes. Siderov was not in the studio.

Speaking in the BNT breakfast show on the morning of October 2, BNT Director General Emil Koshlukov said: Until the broadcaster receives an official apology from Mr. Siderov, which we will look at, I would kindly ask our colleagues - not only in the breakfast progarmme, but also in the "Referendum" and all our current affairs programmes to not invite Mr. Siderov for participation. In fact, I do not ask, but I order it so that it is known who is responsible for this decision and so that they do not get accusations of censoring Ataka. Second, for the time I am the Director General of BNT, we will not tolerate such attitude and behaviour on air and towards our colleagues.

BNT management came up with a statement that it condemned the blatant disregard that Siderov had showed to the agreement signed between the Central Election Commission, BNT and political parties on the conduct of the election campaign.

BNT management declares that it stands behind Dobrina Cheshmedzhieva and behind her actions during the broadcast of the Referndum show. The declaration also says that it is unacceptable to use public service broadcasting for hate speech and words that denigrate political opponents. It said that it would propose to the Central Election Commission and Council of Electronic Media to exclude Ataka from the broadcasting agreement and to have no further free or paid participation in BNT election broadcast.

Through the declaration, the public service broadcaster hopes that both participants in the upcoming elections and representatives of all political forces will distance themselves from the behaviour shown last night by a participant in the debate.

Later on October 2, the Council for Electronic Media expressed concern over the breach of the agreement on the conduct of the election campaign for Municipal Councilors and Mayors, signed between the Bulgarian National Television and the political parties, coalitions of parties and initiative committees approved by the Central Election Commission.

The statement posted on the CEM website says that during one of the free forms of the election campaign in the BNT 1 programme, the leader of Ataka PG, Mr. Volen Siderov, invited to participate as chair of the election campaign staff of a parliamentary represented political force, allowed himself to blatantly violate the rules for conducting a political debate in the BNT studio. In the election campaign, the role of the public service broadcaster BNT is essential for the objective, equal and fair presentation of the participants, on one hand, and for informing the voters, on the other. The journalists from the Bulgarian National Television have experience and skills to cover political campaigns, as well as professional self-confidence to respond adequately, in defence of the public interest. The Broadcasting Law and the Election Code entrusted BNT with numerous commitments related to the performance of its public functions, which creates high expectations in the audience. Public's expectations and responsible behaviour on the part of the participants in the election campaign are no less, the statement says.