The topic of choosing a general director of BNT is difficult to explain, because we have a context and many participants in a framework that is changing. It is very difficult for anyone to follow what is happening. Let me remind you that Emil Koshlukov already had a first term 2019-2022, and after this three-year term, the regulator - the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), held a new selection procedure, but it did not end with an election. During this procedure, CEM crashed. The truth is that CEM selects the management of public media. In 2022, when we are talking about BNT, CEM failed to select a general director. There is such an option in the law. She announced this to Lili Marinkova in the studio “FACTI“ and the program “Conversation“ Prof. Nelly Ognyanova, lecturer in European media law at Sofia University.
“What is this option due to? We are talking about changes to the Radio and Television Act of 2016, which were adopted. At that time, the law stated that if a general director of BNT is not elected, the one who is currently in charge begins to perform the function of interim director until a new general director is elected. The problem here is that in this version, the legislator did not provide for a period within which a new director would be elected. Thus, the one who is currently the director of BNT can continue for an unlimited time, even forever. But the legislator did not accidentally write down a period, but rather deliberately omitted to do so“, shared Prof. Ognyanova.
“The changes to the law were adopted in 2016, when the director of BNT was Vyara Ankova. And the law was changed like that because presidential elections were coming up, and for the ruling party it was important that there were no changes in the management of BNT. I mean, when the legislator does something for a specific person, he does not take into account what the consequences will be in life. Today we are reaping the fruits of that decision from 2016, which left Vyara Ankova to be the director of BNT during the presidential elections," the guest added.
See more of the conversation in the VIDEO.