There are some participants in the elections who participate only because of the media packages, as can be seen from their very poor results. Stoil Tsitselkov from the Public Council of the CEC stated this to the BNR.
In his words, the access to public media of all the participants in the elections gives some people the opportunity to spread absurd news.
"In its essence, the idea is good and I welcome it - every political player can, anyone who has applied, but probably just the criteria should be a little higher for who can still participate. Here we must return to the field of journalism - that journalists have some role in moderation, in choosing topics and guests. At the moment, as far as this is formally available, some guests have come to talk about something, regardless of what you ask them", comments Tsitselkov.
According to him, there is a way to limit participation and benefit from it. However, according to him, this is only a symptom of a more serious problem related to the Law on Political Parties, on registrations:
"In Bulgaria, one can still buy party registration. We need a revision for control".
Tsitselkov noted the enormous influence of social media. More and more we see the politician who has to be an influencer and vice versa, he pointed out and explained:
"On social media, everyone is always on a campaign. If you are not in a campaign and do not have loud positions, you lose position. In order to satisfy the algorithms, they favor more hysterical, more sensational and more polarizing content. Political parties and good players take advantage of these models very well.
In his words, we need to recognize that these social media are media and that they have a huge impact on how we make our choices.
According to him, in Bulgaria we need an in-depth analysis of the messages in social media, the behavior of politicians there and the effect that all this has on society. As a country and a society, we do not have such an analysis, he was categorical.
People who have real programs and ideas for development should see how to take advantage of this opportunity, believes Stoil Tsitselkov.