Area Handbook For Bulgaria Part 22

United Nations Membership and Partic.i.p.ation

Bulgaria became a member of the UN on December 14, 1955. Its delegates are active in committee work of the UN organs and subsidiary bodies as well as in deliberations on the floor of the General a.s.sembly. One of its most important committee a.s.signments is to the so-called First Committee, which was established as one of the original six committees under the General a.s.sembly's rules of procedure in 1946. It deals with political and security matters and was headed by Milko Tarabanov, one of five Bulgarian delegates to the UN in the session held from September through December 1972.

Available records of General a.s.sembly activities in 1970 showed active partic.i.p.ation of Bulgaria's delegates in committee work touching on such matters as the review of administrative tribunal judgments; the question of defining aggression; the peaceful uses of outer s.p.a.ce; the peaceful uses of the seabed under international waters; and the implementation of the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples. Bulgaria was particularly interested in the Caribbean territories.

As a member of the Committee on Disarmament, Bulgaria, along with twenty-four other partic.i.p.ating states, met in Geneva in 1970. The committee met to consider the question of cessation of the nuclear arms race and a.s.sociated matters, such as the prohibition of emplacing nuclear arms or other destructive weapons on the seabed. A refinement of the comprehensive test ban treaty of 1963 extended the prohibition on arms control to underground testing. Bulgaria, along with other Eastern European countries, also supported draft proposals of the committee not to undertake the "development, production, and stockpiling of chemical and bacteriological weapons" and the consequent "destruction of such weapons" as well as the prohibition of "biological methods of warfare."

Bulgaria, as a member of the General a.s.sembly's First Committee, also cosponsored a resolution to secure guarantees that the seabed would be used only for peaceful means.

In regard to the question of nuclear and thermonuclear testing, Bulgaria sought the early pa.s.sage of an agreement to prohibit all nuclear weapons testing while the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were going on between the United States and the Soviet Union. Bulgaria also partic.i.p.ated actively in the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer s.p.a.ce. As a member of a subcommittee's working group, proposals and working papers were submitted on the question of liability for damage caused by objects that were launched into outer s.p.a.ce. For its part, Bulgaria sought to clarify the "question of applicable law" and the "settlement of disputes."

The country was also represented in bodies dealing with economic questions; questions of development; and social questions involving housing, building, and planning as well as the promotion of children's welfare. Additionally, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development had Bulgarian delegates in five of its working groups, dealing with trade and development, commodities, domestic shipping, international shipping legislation, and the transfer of technology.

Bulgaria is also a member of the Economic Commission for Europe.

CHAPTER 11

Ma.s.s COMMUNICATIONS

Since the Communists took over the government in 1944, the ma.s.s communications systems have been perceived as instruments of propaganda and vehicles for party control. Because of this perception of the significance of the media, the new government immediately claimed all ma.s.s media as state property.

There is little if any tolerance of the free expression of ideas throughout the entire ma.s.s communications system. Because Bulgaria is more closely tied to the Soviet Union than most of the other Eastern European countries, the dictates of Moscow are virtually followed to the letter in the media. Themes that are initiated in Moscow are reiterated almost verbatim in Sofia. The major theme of the ma.s.s media is respect for and emulation of the Soviet Union, although recently some social themes--such as the problems of youth and alcoholism--have been incorporated as well.

The only sources of information and entertainment permitted to the people are the domestically controlled ma.s.s media. Most Bulgarians distrust information available to them from these sources but, having no alternative, continue to use them.

Historically, of all the ma.s.s communications systems, the press has always reached the largest number of people and has traditionally been viewed by the government as the most effective means of informing the general public. Although the circulation of the press dropped drastically in the mid-1940s, it has since the 1960s once again become the chief instrument of the ma.s.s communications system. Radio has greatly expanded in variety and scope since the 1940s. Television, although slow to develop and still limited in its audience relative to other European countries, has been growing rapidly since the early 1960s and was beginning to experiment with color in the early 1970s.

There has been little change in the Bulgarian publishing industry since 1944. Owing to the government's fear of contamination by the West or other capitalist societies, there is very little importation of foreign books into the country. Although books have increased greatly in terms of sheer numbers of editions, the quant.i.ty of book t.i.tles has remained very much the same since World War II.

Libraries range from those under the control of state ministries and committees to local reading rooms and enterprise libraries. The latter are generally more widely used by the people.

Since the end of World War II the film industry has grown to a great extent. Like other instruments of the media, films are chosen for their propagandistic value; however, since the advent of television, fewer people have attended films.

BACKGROUND

The press--composed of newspapers and periodicals--was the most developed of the Bulgarian media in the first half of the twentieth century. Radio, which was introduced in the 1920s, was under the aegis of what was then the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone. The production, importation, and sale of radios were unrestricted. The least developed communications system of the day was the film industry, which was privately owned and operated. Television was not initiated in the country until the mid-1950s.

In the years immediately after the takeover, a strong pro-Soviet policy was established for the media, which was still in effect in 1973. While the new government restricted individual freedom and initiative within the media, it demanded total support by the media of all policies of the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that Bulgaria has never deviated from the policy of complete commitment to the Soviet Union, after the invasion of Czechoslovakia various media conferences were held in which calls for stricter adherence to the Soviet line were sounded.

OBJECTIVES OF Ma.s.s COMMUNICATIONS

The government has certain distinct perceptions as to how the media must serve the state. Propaganda permeates every aspect of life from formal education to membership in unions and clubs to the publication of books and pamphlets. The Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary) is the main political force. It both creates the appropriate condition for the expression of public opinion and forms public opinion itself.

At a recent conference on the ma.s.s communications system, a leading member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party delineated the princ.i.p.al tasks of the media. The major task of the media was "to work for the broadest possible propagation of the congress decisions and for the mobilization of the people's physical and mental powers to make their decisions materialize...." The second vital task of the media was to "help form a socialist outlook on life among the peoples and educate the new man--active fighter for the developed socialist society, ideologically convinced, morally durable, physically tempered, with profound awareness of duty and responsibility." The third task was to promote the economic awareness of the people and to train managers, specialists, workers, and farmers for the greater economic good of the country. The fourth main task was to continue in the active struggle against "bourgeois ideology ... and the ideological subversion of imperialism."

A basic tenet of the Bulgarian system, however, is the belief that ma.s.s communications must be actively supplemented by human contact on the individual level. Iliya Georgiev, secretary of the Varna Okrug Bulgarian Communist Party Committee, in an article on the political knowledge of working people in 1972, stated categorically that the interest stimulated in the people by the ma.s.s communications system must be maintained and extended by informal means of communications, such as district (_okrug_) seminars, meetings in enterprises and farms, activities in the trade unions, and the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union (Dimitrovski Komunisticheski Mladezhki Suyuz--commonly referred to as the Komsomol).

The government has spent considerable time in a.s.sessing the extent to which these media objectives have been achieved. In the years immediately following the takeover, the government was consistently distressed by continued Bulgarian feelings of friendship with the West and the continual influence of the West upon the country. Although the propaganda efforts of the communist government were tireless, radio broadcasts and printed materials from the West continued to pour into Bulgaria.

As the government's control over both the formal communications media and the informal means of communications widened, the external threat was perceived to be less, and governmental attention turned to the a.s.sessment of the relative popularity of the various branches of the media. In a recent study 3,294 people were questioned as to their favorite source of domestic and international information. The vast majority--64.8 percent--of those polled stated that their preferred source was daily newspapers; 24.6 percent preferred television; and only 2.7 percent preferred radio. Although the newspapers were the favorite source of information, they were frequently criticized by the people, who expressed a basic lack of confidence in the press. In a second study dealing with people's att.i.tudes toward the press alone, 48.1 percent of the 900 people polled said they disliked the press, and 52.1 percent complained of the primitive quality of Bulgarian newspapers.

Young people, especially students, appeared to be even less stimulated by the ma.s.s media than their elders. A study performed in the 1969/70 academic year indicated that students were indifferent to both domestic political events and international developments. The pollsters concluded that generally Bulgarian students take little advantage of the ma.s.s media as a source of information. Unlike the broad public, whose primary source of information was the press, students tended to see television as their preferred source and the press and radio as secondary sources.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

The 1947 Const.i.tution, known as the Dimitrov Const.i.tution, established the stated rights of citizens as well as the nationalization of all private property, including the ma.s.s communications network. Regarding the so-called freedom of citizens, Article 88 of the 1947 Const.i.tution claimed: "The citizens of the People's Republic are guaranteed freedom of the press, of speech, of a.s.sembly, of meetings and demonstrations."

At the same time, Article 10 and Article 17 prohibited the unrestricted freedom of private property and provided for its nationalization under the authority of the National a.s.sembly. More specifically, Article 80 of the const.i.tution dealt directly with the system of ma.s.s communications: "The state cares for the development of science and art by establishing ... publishing houses, libraries, theatres, museums, public reading clubs, ... film studios, [and] cinemas...."

In 1956 the premier of the communist regime, Vulko Chervenkov, emphasized the ultimate control of the party over all inst.i.tutions of the country. He stated: "No inst.i.tution, organization, or person can be above the Politburo and the Central Committee ... those guilty of deviation from the Bolshevik rule must be held responsible and punished." Under his successor, Todor Zhivkov, a slight liberalization regarding freedom of the media ensued (see ch. 9). For a brief period writers and scholars were given greater lat.i.tude of expression. When some writers dared to openly criticize the government, however, Zhivkov was unable to tolerate this criticism and reimposed restrictions on the media. The ultimate authority of the party was again made manifest. In an article in 1969, Georgi Bokov, chief editor of _Rabotnichesko Delo_ and chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, flatly rejected the notions of freedom and independence for the ma.s.s communications system.

The stated goals of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists in the late 1960s were "to promote the development of ma.s.s information and propaganda media as first-rate ideological weapons in the struggle for the victory of socialism and Communism ... the Union must constantly work to turn the press, radio, and television into effective ideological instruments for the Party."

In 1971, a new const.i.tution was promulgated, but the basic clauses of the 1947 doc.u.ment, regarding so-called individual freedoms and state ownership, remained essentially intact. It was restated in Article 54 that "citizens enjoy freedom of speech, press, meetings, a.s.sociations and demonstrations." Article 46 again provided for state development of, and control over, the ma.s.s communications system.

The results of the policy regarding the media are witnessed by numerous examples of party control and the repression of dissidents. All newspapers must provide s.p.a.ce for the official news of the government, and all Central Committee directives must be printed without alteration.

No dispatches sent out by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (Bulgarska Telegrafna Agentsiya--BTA)--the official news agency of the country--are allowed to be revised. No criticism of government policies is tolerated. Dissident individuals and groups are singled out for criticism by the Politburo. In 1972 a Politburo member, Todor Pavlov, accused certain writers of rejecting Socialist Realism in favor of more bourgeois literature and art. Other writers were criticized for their so-called subjectivistic interpretation of Bulgarian literature and were branded as pseudoscientists.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE Ma.s.s COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

Administrative Units

As the system has evolved, the broad outlines of propaganda have been dictated from the Politburo, the party's chief policymaking unit. From there policy is transmitted to the Agitation and Propaganda Department (Agitprop), which is a major operational unit of the Central Committee.

Agitprop, in turn, is responsible for the transmission of guidelines down to the lowest levels of party organization. Simultaneously, the same dictates are transmitted throughout all cultural inst.i.tutions by the Ministry of Information and Communications. Under this ministry's jurisdiction are the arts, the film industry, radiobroadcasting, television, book and pamphlet publishing, printing, all cultural or educational inst.i.tutions, and all so-called independent artists. Still a third channel for the transmission of the original propaganda are the ma.s.s organizations that function in the propaganda field under direction of either Agitprop or the Ministry of Information and Communications (see ch. 9).

The administrative center for all media is Sofia, the capital. Eight daily newspapers are published in Sofia and distributed throughout the country; there are also seventeen major publishing houses in Sofia. The National Film Board, which oversees all aspects of film production, is in Sofia, as is Radio Sofia, which is the radio station for the entire country. The Cyril and Methodius Library--also known as the Bulgarian National Library--is within the confines of the city, as are the Union of Bulgarian Writers; the Union of Bulgarian Artists; and the Union of Composers, Musicologists, and Performing Musicians (see ch. 7).

The exportation of propaganda is under the auspices of the Sofia Press Agency. This agency was founded in 1967 with the express purpose of disseminating Bulgarian propaganda to other countries. Its three major tasks are to publicize Bulgaria's achievements and successes actively to the world; to attempt to counter anti-Bulgarian propaganda; and to provide the various communist parties of the world with rationale in their struggles against capitalism.

In 1972 the Sofia Press Agency was in the process of negotiating agreements with the BTA and the Committee for Television and Radio.

Agreements had already been established with book publishers, photographic artists, and the film industry. In early 1972 over 500 people--the majority of whom were editors and translators--were working for the Sofia Press Agency, and contracts had been signed with approximately 120 foreign countries. Nine magazines, translated into eleven languages, had been published each year in 2.5 million copies. A dual language newspaper has been published each year in 500,000 copies, and 400 books had appeared in approximately 4 million copies. Some 15,000 articles had been written, 30,000 photographs taken, and dozens of television motion pictures and doc.u.mentaries had been filmed.

News Agency

The BTA was founded originally in 1898 in Sofia. It is the official news agency of the country and the sole source of both foreign and domestic news. It receives most of its foreign items from the Soviet Union news agency but also maintains exchange agreements with Reuters, a.s.sociated Press, and the a.s.sociated Foreign Press as well as a host of lesser known foreign news agencies, although it tends to be more discriminating in terms of the items selected from these sources.

In the 1960s the BTA had twenty-three correspondents posted throughout the nation, as well as foreign correspondents in Moscow, Peking, East Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Tirana, Belgrade, Ankara, Paris, Bonn, New York, Vienna, Cairo, and New Delhi. Correspondents are sent on special a.s.signments to investigate news that is considered to be of interest to Bulgaria. Domestic news is reproduced in Russian, English, French, German, and Spanish, and international news is reproduced in Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. In an average day the BTA receives approximately 800 foreign newspapers, magazines, and bulletins and itself produces over 125,000 words.

THEMES OF THE MEDIA

The predominant theme of the media remains the expression of friendship with the Soviet Union. In 1971 a leading member of the party's Central Committee informed members of the media that one of their primary functions was to champion the feelings of "fraternal love, trust, and grat.i.tude" of the Bulgarian people for the "heroic Soviet people," at the same time demonstrating "clearly and convincingly the unbreakable ties linking our present and future with the present and future of the Soviet Union."