At an extraordinary session, the Council for Electronic Media will announce what it will do in connection with its authority under the Radio and Television Act to elect and dismiss the directors general of the Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National Television.
On February 13, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the CEM's appeal against the suspension of the media regulator's decision to announce a new procedure for electing the director general of the Bulgarian National Television.
On July 15 last year, the Council for Electronic Media decided to hold a new procedure for electing the director general of the public television, but it could not be held due to court cases following a series of complaints from candidates for the position, participants in the competitions, including the current head of BNT Emil Koshlukov.
On February 13, it became clear that the Supreme Administrative Court had invalidated a ruling by Administrative Court - Sofia-region, which suspended the implementation of the decision of the CEM. The Supreme Judges considered the appeals on the merits of the dispute against the regulator's decision to open the procedure for the election of the General Director of BNT to be inadmissible, therefore they also concluded that the request to suspend the implementation of this decision was inadmissible.
The Supreme Court considered the conclusion of the Administrative Court that the challengers have a legal interest in appealing the decision to open the procedure for the election of the General Director to be incorrect. The appellants are affected only with regard to the terminated election procedure in which they participated and which they appealed. However, the Supreme Magistrates draw attention to the fact that the CEM can independently suspend the conduct of the new procedure until the ongoing fourth-year legal dispute regarding the terminated 2022 election procedure is resolved. According to the Radio and Television Act, Emil Koshlukov is the Director General of the Bulgarian National Television until a new one is elected.