Przejdź do wyszukiwarki/Go to searching Zamknij wyszukiwarkę
A- Decrease font sizeA+ Decrease font size Zmień kontrast

Central European Journal of Communication

Central European Journal of Communication

Scientific Journal of the Polish Communication Association

https://www.facebook.com/CEJCjournal

https://linkedin.com/company/cejcjournal

https://www.instagram.com/cejcjournal

You are here: Home > Browse Journal > Volume 5 No 1 (8) Spring 2012 > Spies like us: Media politics and the communist past in Bulgaria

Spies like us: Media, politics and the communist past in Bulgaria

Elza Ibroscheva

(Southern Illinois University, USA)

ABSTRACT: The secrecy enveloping the past of public figures — journalists, politicians, and business moguls — has been plaguing democratic transition all across the Central and Eastern European region. In Bulgaria, the public has faced at different stages of the transition the uncomfortable moral crisis of reconciling the communist past with the political and cultural presence. In this process, journalists and media professionals play a vital role as critical agencies of discovering and disseminating the facts concerning the secret communist past of public figures. The situation is further complicated when journalists themselves are implicated in collaborating with the communist secret service, while at the same time, serving as prominent voices of dissent and political change. This paper examines the ramifications of these problems for press freedom and self-censorship, when not only journalists but media owners themselves, find their names on the “blacklist” of former secret agents and spies.