Controversy has broken out in Bulgaria following today’s announcement that Valeriy Todorov has been elected Director General of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). It was reported that five members of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM) voted ‘for’, and that he was chosen at first voting among eight candidates. Three other candidates got one vote each, according to official reports. Todorov will take up the position on 29 May 29, when the mandate of the current Director General, Polya Stancheva, expires.
However, the editors of BNR issued a statement which said ‘There was actually no election, the election was pre-arranged and the position in the radio station was distributed long before the official announcement of the candidate elected.’
Since his apppointment earlier today, Todorov has already said that BNR is in need of changes, but added that he will keep in mind the opinion of his colleagues and won’t take unilateral decisions, focusing on dialogue.
But media expert and Chairman of the Bulgarian Media Coalition, Georgi Lozanov, said that ‘Valerii Todorov is not the publicly recognizable figure that I would want to head the national radio. I think that the main job of the Director General is to be able to act as a support for the journalists and to absorb the pressure on him.’ Lozanov said he does not believe that Todorov is up to the task of dealing with the problems that the media has to solve.
(Source: Focus News Agency/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)